Impressions with engineer

[Anthony.3207]

Hello all. Hope everyone is enjoying this friday. I want to talk about impressions with engineer.

 

It seems a lot of general discussion and people online think engineer requires a lot of skill and is a very hard class to play.

 

I want to know - what do you all know about the engineer class ? tell me your knowledge or opinions and then i will share with you my own opinions.

 

Is engineer a good class for pve / pvp ?

 

Is it meta ?

 

Is it easy to level ?

 

Do you like it's flavor of RP ?

 

Please offer your opinion here because i might roll an engineer to 80 or boost one to 80 ;)

[Frostmane.9734]

> @"Anthony.3207" said:

> Hello all. Hope everyone is enjoying this friday. I want to talk about impressions with engineer.

>

> It seems a lot of general discussion and people online think engineer requires a lot of skill and is a very hard class to play.

>

> I want to know - what do you all know about the engineer class ? tell me your knowledge or opinions and then i will share with you my own opinions.

>

> Is engineer a good class for pve / pvp ?

Core: No, Scrapper: kind of, Holo: Yes

 

> Is it meta ?

Core: No, Scrapper: No, Holo: Yes

 

> Is it easy to level ?

Core: No, Scrapper: N/A Holo: N/A

 

> Do you like it's flavor of RP ?

Core: Yes, Scrapper: kind of, Holo: No

 

 

[starlinvf.1358]

Why not just state your opinions?

[Hoodie.1045]

> @"Anthony.3207" said:

> Hello all. Hope everyone is enjoying this friday. I want to talk about impressions with engineer.

>

> It seems a lot of general discussion and people online think engineer requires a lot of skill and is a very hard class to play.

>

> I want to know - what do you all know about the engineer class ? tell me your knowledge or opinions and then i will share with you my own opinions.

 

Prepare for the amount of mind blowing tips and tricks that I'm about to throw in your face:

 

Using leap/blast finishers after using Regenerating Mist results in a self/AoE heal.

Net Shot is instant cast and it can immobilize foes behind you.

While you're blocking damage with Gear Shield, you can swap to different kits without interrupting the block.

Using Magnet right before a foe enters stealth will still pull them towards you, even if they are invisible.

Using Throw Wrench in Super Elixir or any other light field cleanses a condition.

Blunderbuss ignores LoS i.e. you can shoot through walls. Don't question it, it's video games.

Infusion Bomb + Cleansing Field results in an AoE heal.

About Face + Acid Bomb = forward leap similar to Jump Shot.

Using Alchemy with Tools reduces the cooldown on Healing Mist (Elixir Gun stun breaker) from 35 seconds to 24 seconds.

 

> Is engineer a good class for pve / pvp ?

 

If we're talking about core engineer, it is a good profession for both PvE and PvP. I say PvP because too many players consider engineer as lackluster and the reason for it is because those players have never played core engineer, even before the Scrapper and the Holosmith were introduced.

 

> Please offer your opinion here because i might roll an engineer to 80 or boost one to 80 ;)

 

Core engineer is still my favorite profession. Sure, when it comes to PvP it's inferior to the Holosmith, but the Holosmith was made for those players who couldn't play core engineer, let alone try out the profession. The reason why I don't like the Holosmith is that it is the most backwards designed specialization. What I mean by this is that it's a specialization that is easier to play, but it achieves more by doing less.

 

Before the Holosmith, ArenaNet looked at the statistics one day, seeing that the engineer is the least profession in the entire game. That's because you need to be good with kits in order to be effective. Instead of them making the Holosmith an easy to play specialization that is fun to play for new players, but doesn't reach the highest results as core engineer, they did the exact opposite.

 

Core engineer is the intelligent profession that is the most rewarding to play when using the kits properly. The Holosmith is the braindead idiot who swings his weapon in the air like a nutcase that outperforms core engineer which isn't how things should work in my opinion.

[derd.6413]

the problem with core engi is that anet doesn't know how to balance it (both skills and traits) and traits are a mess (they've been cleaning them up but they've still got a way to go).

scrapper's utility skills don't work properly because of poor pathing

holo's alrigt

[Xolas.9781]

> @"Anthony.3207" said:

> Is engineer a good class for pve / pvp ?

 

No, besides Holosmith in sPvP where it is decent but still outclassed. Engineer is utter garbage in both PvE and WvW.

 

> Is it meta ?

 

No. Holosmith has made things easier, but otherwise engi works much harder for less effort than all other classes. Engineer also brings nothing unique or useful.

 

> Is it easy to level ?

 

No. It's regarded as the slowest and most boring to level out of all classes.

 

> Do you like it's flavor of RP ?

 

Yes.

 

 

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

> It seems a lot of general discussion and people online think engineer requires a lot of skill and is a very hard class to play.

Who am I to disagree? It depends on what path you choose. Core/Condition engineer works with kit-swapping and long rotation-chains. Some classes can mash one key while running arround the enemy and they do a lot more damage. If we try the same strategy, our damage is horrible. So we are forced to rotate a lot to get close to acceptable damage. Scrapper is a sub-form which favors survivability and slightly boosts damage output. For years if you asked on mapchat, how to support your party best? The 101 answer was: just go full DPS. Things have changed over the years, but if your damage is not even average, you are seen as a stupid freak by the others. The Holosmith (I prefer Hollowsmith) is basically the opposite of what the engineer has been until Path of Fire. It is straight forward, damage-oriented without any tricky skills. It allows the player to mash buttons like crazy and do average to good damage.

 

>tell me your knowledge or opinions and then i will share with you my own opinions.

This makes no sense at all. If you have an opinion just tell us. We do not bite, at least I don't.

 

> Is engineer a good class for pve / pvp ?

Core/Condition has its place in pve. Big problem is, you need time to build up damage. When fighting bosses, elites or champions the condition-engineer is a powerful ally. If you fight trash-mobs, it takes way too much time to get them down. If you are willing to play with the flamethrower, you have access to the best lootstick in the game right now - thanks to the guardian staff nerf. You can tag tons of mobs within short time and just loot their corpses. Works quite excellent with the specimen-chamber pre event in Sandswept Isles. Until WP will mention it in a video, then it is going to get nerfed for sure. That's life.

 

Scrapper, as I mentioned already, has some nice survivability upgrades and the hammer is well developed. One of the few classes which can manage 25 might-stacks permanently without too much trouble. The damage is average at best, compared to most other classes it is weak. The gyros are powerful in a certain way, but the AI is challenging. Upon deploy they should follow you or head straight to a target you give them. If they do it, when they do it and what path they choose can be very frustrating. Sometimes they can fly through massive blocks or trees and sometimes they stop, because of a stem laying on the ground. But on the other hand, we have the sneak-gyro: a portable stealth-field for us and our allies. Excellent to bypass nasty points in dungeons, get difficult hero-challenges (like balthazar in Auric Basin) or just have a relaxed time in hostile territory.

 

The Hollowsmith is the winner by design. It is even recommended as a starting profession by now, because it is so easy to control. But it has nothing to do with the real engineer.

 

I cannot say anything about PvP, because I don't.

 

> Is it meta ?

Do we really have to answer this? Hollow is, others not, reasons see above.

 

> Is it easy to level ?

It is fun to level it, you learn a lot about the skills and certain game-mechanics such as combos. Personally I do not recommend it as a starter-class for a new player. And if I was about to start the engineer from scratch again, I would pick a friend or person from the guild who mains the class, whom I can ask whenever there is something I do not understand. I play it for ~ 5 years now and I still discover new tricks once in a while.

 

My personal opinion about leveling difficulty from best to worst:

Warrior = Ranger = Guardian > Thief > Necromancer > Elementalist = Engineer = Revenant > Mesmer

Other people may disagree, that is why it is called opinion.

 

> Do you like it's flavor of RP ?

Core & Scrapper are awesome. Even if you choose a very simple and straight forward play-style, you always feel like an engineer. I only use the rata-sum home instance with my human-engineer, because it just feels good.

 

Hollowsmith is an abomination to me. It does not suit anywhere properly. We are mostly steam-punk oriented, when it comes to mechanical stuff in the game. Using laser-lights, an overheat mechanic and holographic devices feels wrong on so many levels. The lightsaber ... when I saw it for the first time, I was rolling on the floor laughing. A lightsaber, I mean, Really? And the photon-fudge works with SAB-skins. And the official recommended armor is the gemstore magitec + a new shoulder-piece. When the revenant was introduced, it received a whole armor-set just for the profession. We get a gemstore-set, which we have to purchase if we want to use it. The only holosmith I own is farming flax beneath Jaka Itzel.

 

> Please offer your opinion here because i might roll an engineer to 80 or boost one to 80 ;)

If you are interested in the class, take your time. Create a character that looks awesome and feels good when you look at him. A lot of the motivation to play the engineer comes from the design. Level it manually without any boosters or scrolls. It is not difficult. We do not really have a leveling curve in this game. And with the scaling maps, you can play wherever you want. The newbie maps give good exp, even to highlevel players. When you are tired of a scenery or want to train in another region, proceed. But you are not forced to play in a level 40 map when you reach level 40. Again take your time. Try out the different weapons and kits, spend some time with them and learn the strengths and weakpoints of each. The more you learn during the leveling phase, the easier it will be when you reach level 80.

 

A few weeks ago there was a poor guy on the Players Helping Players board. He simply boosted an engineer to 80, got himself a ton of gold and expected to be extremely powerful. Surprisingly for him it did not work that way. Instead of telling him to slow down and learn a profession from scratch, people rather recommended him to head straight to meta-battle and get ascended berserker's gear asap. That was the last time I saw him. I hope he is alright.

[stone cold.8609]

Welcome! I really like engineer and find it very rewarding to play, but it is unlike any other profession in the game. I am primarily a PvE player, so my comments are directed to this game mode.

 

There are a some things to keep in mind when playing engineer:

 

-You don't have a conventional weapons swap. Instead, kit swapping functions as your weapon swap.

 

-To be most effective, you have to use kits and learn when to swap them. Keep in mind that the entire Holosmith elite photon forge is essentially just another kit to swap in to.

 

-This is not the profession you want to be using your weapon auto attacks for damage, since there are typically better options using kits. Here is what a common/basic skill rotation looks like for power rifle attack:

 

Rifle skill 5 + 3 as a gap closer and initial burst. Then swap to bomb kit for skill 2 and auto attack until cool down on rifle 5 is up. Then repeat.

 

I'd suggest going to the mists and try this out on the golems to see how you like it since this will give you a feel for the flavor of engineer. From there, you can add more kits (photon forge for damage, grenade kit is commonly used for ranged, and elixir gun for more utility) if you want more complexity.

 

-The Holosmith elite is very strong and is pretty much the best option currently for doing the most DPS in PvE. It also plays differently than core or Scrapper by locking you out of kits for a short time and introducing a self harming mechanic with heat. It was designed to give Engineer a viable DPS melee spec and it is does this very well. While providing the most DPS, it also simplifies the complexity/kit swapping of the class a bit. Some people like this, and others do not. Regardless, it has brought many new players into the profession and is currently part of the PvE meta game.

[Rezzet.3614]

> @"Anthony.3207" said:

> Hello all. Hope everyone is enjoying this friday. I want to talk about impressions with engineer.

>

> It seems a lot of general discussion and people online think engineer requires a lot of skill and is a very hard class to play.

>

> I want to know - what do you all know about the engineer class ? tell me your knowledge or opinions and then i will share with you my own opinions.

>

> Is engineer a good class for pve / pvp ?

>

> Is it meta ?

>

> Is it easy to level ?

>

> Do you like it's flavor of RP ?

>

> Please offer your opinion here because i might roll an engineer to 80 or boost one to 80 ;)

 

yes

 

no

 

yes

 

yes

 

engineer is great for PvE , can be easy to level if you dont try running extreme complex builds that only belong in raids , it is a fun class but underperforms often because what it does other professions do better.

[Elva.6372]

In order of enjoyment**^** for open world PvE from most to least::

 

1. Holosmith

2. Core (turret)

3. Scrapper

Holo is a great break from engineer clunkiness, an grating aspect to the profession that plagues a class archetype that I otherwise truly love. Core, Condition engineer is disappointing at present, but Core Power/Precision Turret builds can be quite fun and highly versatile in roaming about the open world. Scrapper, has some strong points, but boring game-play and lack of overall versatility and survivability that the Holosmith does not.

 

**^** enjoyment based on ease of play and flexibility in the tougher maps in HoT and PoF)

 

**/my2cents**

[Dace.8173]

I bought this game at launch for two reasons, Sylvari and Engineer. I think it has awesome flavor and is great to play. I enjoy both the Holosmith and the Scrapper. I feel both fit the rp feel of the profession. Is it fast to level? That depends on how well you learn it. Engineer is one of the harder professions to master in the game. It's for that reason that I always recommend against boosting an Engineer. A level 80 Engineer is useless if you haven't taken the time to learn it. If you are trying to learn Elites on top of all the kits and toys that the Engineer gets to play with and you have a confusing set of skills that make for an unfun play experience outside of PvE where knowing the professions is critical in doing well in PvP and WvW. Of the two I would agree that Holosmith is the easier Elite to learn but even that would prove frustrating if you don't get the basics of the Engineer. For instance, Engineers don't swap weapons. Instead, they swap kits, very similar in concept to the Elementalist Attunement swapping. The other professions you can weapon swap to a more familiar set of weapons to back yourself up with. Add in remembering to make good use of your toolbelt and well .... frustration ensues at times.

 

If you seriously want to enjoy Engineer I highly recommend the standard level grind. 80 levels gives you plenty of time to learn how to work toolbelt skills into rotation, play with the kits (flamethrowers are fun but not always the best idea in WvW or PvP).

 

Though I do agree with starlinvf , posting your opinion upfront likely would have given better direction for discussion.