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[Primalpat]

Art of the Spanner

This guide is all in text format for now, but I will be working on videos to explain various points in the advanced sections (WvW tips, and Builds).  Also, please drop some feedback to let me know how I can improve it!

Changlog: 11-8-2012   Added a Trait Section
    11-9-2012   Various changes to wording and specifics
    11-13-2012     Added Combos Section


1.Introduction

Engineering is an art.  When you place that Big Ole Bomb at just the right angle to knock all those bad guys off the wall, you will see.  With his mighty wrench and trusty rifle, the engineer pulls all kinds of tricks out of his bag.  You never know what an engineer is up to just by looking at him.  This guide comes from mostly a WvW point of view.

This guide will cover the basics of the engineer, and expedite your learning to get you off the ground running:
1. Introduction
2. About Me
3. Skills
3.1.   --Weapons
3.2.   --Healing
3.3.   --Utilities
3.4.   –Elites
4. Traits
4.1.   --Explosives
4.2.   --Firearms
4.3.   --Inventions
4.4.   --Alchemy
4.5.   --Tools
5. Gear Tips and Tricks
6. Combos
7. Builds
7.1.   –DPS
7.2.   –Support
7.3.   --Tank
8. WvW Tips-
8.1.   --Area denial
8.2.   --AoE DPS
8.3.   –Mobility
8.4.   –Skirmishing
I use a variety of acronyms relating to the MMORPG genre that many of you know, yet some may not.
MMORPG = Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game [A genre of video games]
MMO = Massively Multiplayer Onling [Short version of above, but less specific]
RTS = Real Time Strategy [A genre of video games]
FPS = First Person Shooter [A genre of video games]
SSB = Super Smash Brothers [Best fighting game ever]
WvW = World versus World [PvP game mode ArenaNet developed]
DA = Decisive Action [The guild I am in that specializes in WvW, we are on Stormbluff Isle server]
AOE = Area of Effect [Skills that deal damage to multiple players simultaneously]
PBAOE = Point Blank AOE [Skills that damage an area around you]
CC = Crowd Control [Skills that inhibit the enemies movement or ability to deal damage]
KB = Knock Back [A form of CC that knocks the enemy away from you]
KD = Knock Down [A form of CC that knocks the enemy to the ground]
Proc = Procedure [Skills that have a chance to do something else]
Crit = Critical [When skills have a chance to deal addition damage]
Spec = Specialize [When a character picks traits that increase a particular playstyle]

2.About Me

Hi, my name is PrimalPat and I am a member of Decisive Action [DA].  I am a squad leader in our WvW groups, and have come to LOVE the engineer.  I like to stream and make videos of our exploits, and generally just enjoy the game in my spare time.  I have a long history of gaming, mostly competitive with RTS's FPS's, MMO's, and some fighters (SSB ftw).  I am not a "professional" gamer, but I do theorycraft and power game / minmax alot.

Here are some fun / helpful links:
Primalpat's Twitch Channel
Primalpat's YouTube Channel
Decisive Action's YouTube Channel

I will be streaming any WvW action I am a part of, so please tune in!  Any favorites, follows, or likes mean alot to me, and give me inspiration to continue with content =)  [I am having some problems with twitch.tv atm so streaming will be a bit on the light side]


3.Skills

This section covers the active skills of the engineer, which outnumber all classes but the elementalist.  Engineers can have a maximum of 34 skills out at one time.  Their class "mechanic" is the toolbelt, which are separate skills that appear above your weapon skills that correlate with what healing skill and 3 utilities you pick.

3.1.Weapon Skills

Engineers cannot weapon swap.  They must choose 1 weapon (Rifle, Pistol / Pistol, or Pistol / Shield).  They make up for this by having many different kits they can swap out on the fly.  There is no cooldown to your kit swapping, which makes for a very fast paced / skilled gameplay.

Pistol:  The pistol is the condition based weapon for the engineer.  They do not scale with power that well, but can put immense pressure with their condition damage.

· Main Hand 1 - Explosive Shot:  Your spam attack for pistols, it stacks bleeds and does aoe damage.  Use the sharpshooter trait, incendiary powder trait, and sigil of superior earth to stack more conditions faster.  It can do extra damage to groups with the Coated Bullets trait, because each person the bullet passes through causes a small explosion.

· Main Hand 2 - Poison Dart Volley:  Use this up close to land all the shots, and make sure you have it stacked on them when you think they are going to pop a heal.

· Main Hand 3 - Static Shot:  Use this skill preferably when more than 1 target is nearby.  Pull it out to cause blindness on strong enemy attacks.

· Off Hand 4 - Blow Torch:  Use up close for maximum effect.  Always try to keep burn up in a condition build.

· Off Hand 5 - Glue Shot:  Used to kite or chase, it cause a brief immobilize and cripple.  Combine with the knee shot trait for maximum effect.

Shield:  The shield can only be paired with the pistol, and thus is usually used in condition based builds, but allows for a bit more CC and tankyness.  Shield is one of my favorite weapon skills from any class, as each one is dual purpose.

· Off Hand 4 - Magnetic Shield:  Hold the key to channel a reflect on projectiles (roots you in place).  This is most useful when you see a warrior taking a knee, or a thief with his volley of shots.  When you release it, it knocks back in a PBAoE.  Awesome for knocking people out of combos and off of structures.  This is a blast finisher.

· Off Hand 5 - Static Shield:  Hold the key to channel a shield that will stun the first person to attack you in melee.  This can be used as another method of combo breaking.  It will also simply block ranged attacks.  Let go to throw your shield at your target, where it will boomerang back to you, dazing anyone in its path.  It will daze the same person twice if you hit them both times.  This is a projectile combo finisher.

Rifle:  The rifle scales great with power and has good CC.  The trade off is that its abilities are a little tough to hit with, and most of them are close range.  With a good power build, the rifle hits VERY hard and can burst people down very rapidly.

· Main Hand 1 - Hip Shot:  Our spam ability, pierces by default.  Does decent damage at a relatively long range.

· Main Hand 2 - Net Shot:  2s immobilize on a 10s cooldown.  With 20% cooldown you can immobilize them 25% of the time.  Use it to kite when low health, and to hold them in place for your burst skills.

· Main Hand 3 - Blunderbuss:  Most effective at close range.  Does decent burst with some bleeding.

· Main Hand 4 - Overcharged Shot:  Offensively get past your enemies and knock them back into your group.  Defensively it removes immobilize, cripple, and chill so I usually save it for that.  Know those pesky ranger/sylvari roots?  Have no fear =)

· Main Hand 5 - Jump Shot:  Our most damaging skill.  It is a little difficult to get used to, and can be easily dodged.  Make sure they are immobilized or otherwise disabled to land it reliably.

3.2.Healing Skills

All Healing skills provide a unique toolbelt skill.  I would try to use your heals early in a fight as opposed to waiting.  Make sure you cleanse poison before trying to heal or it will be less effective.

Elixir-H:  This skill has the longest cooldown of the 3, and gives you a random boon.  Its related toolbelt gives a random boon in the area.  I would not take it unless I am doing a support, or an elixir build to combo with the trait Cleaning Formula 409 which is insane condition removal.

Healing Turret:  This skill is great for team support as well as healing for yourself.  It is versatile in that it gives you several ways to cleanse conditions, heal and regenerate.  The only thing I can say I don't like about it is that it feels a bit clunky.

Med kit:  This is a great heal for engineers going deep in the "Tools" traitline.  The med kit's main heal is located in the toolbelt, and the tools line reduces the cooldown of the toolbelt.  It is a kit and thus can be combined with the speedy kits trait and the "on heal" runes (which is why they have an internal cooldown).  This kit also boasts 10s of fury and swiftness on a 20s cooldown, and a condition removal.


3.3.Utility Skills

The majority of an engineer's build decisions are located here, in the utility section.  These decisions usually dictate how you will choose your traits and gear.  This is where the rubber hits the road for the engineer and their versatility really shows.  Each Utility provides an engineer with a related toolbelt.

Kits:  Kits are basically weapons.  Each one of these utilities will, when used, replace your weapon skills with "Flamethrower" skills or "Tool" skills etc.  There is no cooldown for swapping between these kits.  Many of them provide more utility than average, but are more difficult to use well.  They can be traited for perma swiftness (Speedy Kits) and to use an extra skill when you swap to them (Kit Refinement).

Elixir Gun:  This weapon specializes in support abilities mixed with a bit of condition damage.  Kit refinement drops a Super Elixir when you swap to it.

· Toolbelt - Healing mist:  Simply regeneration in an AoE for 10s on a 40s cooldown.

· Main Hand 1 - Tranquilizer Dart:  Our spammable attack from this kit, it applies a 4s bleed and 1s weakness but pistol is preferred for condition builds.  I do not recommend swapping to this kit to spam 1.

· Main Hand 2 - Elixir F:  Bounce shot that applies 3s cripple to foes and 3s swiftness to allies.  It is pretty useful for chasing, but is a little strange to use.  8s cooldown, not bad.

· Main Hand 3 - Fumigate:  A flamethroweresque skill that spews elixir.  It poisons foes, but also cures conditions for allies.  It does NOT cure your own conditions though.

· Main Hand 4 - Acid Bomb:  An excellent escape skill that gets some good distance.  Its low cooldown is VERY good at only 15s.

· Main Hand 5 - Super Elixir:  An impact and pulse heal that is also a light field.  Drop one of these and shoot through it to cure conditions.

Flamethrower:  This kit is great!  It combines Condition Damage and Power in 1 kit.  Kit refinement gives a small PBAoE flameblast.  It deals significant raw damage and can quickly apply conditions.  It also give a powerful KB on a 15s cooldown.

· Toolbelt - Incendiary Ammo:  This applies burning on your next 3 attacks.  Can be useful in non condition damage builds due to the burning effect's raw power.

· Main Hand 1 - Flame Jet:  Our spammable attack from this kit, it applies a 1s burn at the end of its channel, and fires pretty rapidly.  It stacks a considerable amount of damage quickly, and each hit has a chance to proc conditions (If you take the necessary traits).

· Main Hand 2 - Flame Blast:  Very powerful nuke on an 8s cooldown.  It is difficult to hit with though.  Try to have it explode right after going through the target (Like phoenix for ele's).

· Main Hand 3 - Air Blast:  The best part (IMO) of this kit is a conal knockback on 15s cooldown.  Excellent for area denial and sets them up for a Flame Blast.

· Main Hand 4 - Napalm:  A fire combo field that burns.  Combine this with some finishers for its true power.

· Main Hand 5 - Smoke Vent:  A PBAoE blind.  Gives us extra power versus melee foes.  The interesting thing about this skill, is that you can use it while stunned or performing other tasks.  Imagine you are stomping someone, when a guardian is about to whallop you with his big hammer.  He will be blind, miss his KB, and the enemy will be dead.  Win-Win-Win.

Tool Kit:  A melee kit that hits very hard and provides some great utility.  You can go invulnerable, pull enemies to you, and drop nails to bleed and cripple.  This kit works best for tanky and power builds.  The Power Wrench trait greatly improves the effectiveness of this kit giving extra cripple and reduced cooldowns.  Kit refinement drops a box of nails.

· Toolbelt - Throw Wrench:  Throws a wrench out like a boomerang.  Good for power engineers to deal additional ranged damage.  Works well with static discharge.  Cripples with Power wrench.

· Main Hand 1 - Smack:  Our spammable attack from this kit, it applies vulnerability and does respectable damage.  It also cripples with Power Wrench.

· Main Hand 2 - Box of Nails:  PBAoE nails that bleed and cripple.

· Main Hand 3 - Pry Bar:  Hits very hard and confuses enemy.  Definitely throw this in the mix when you swap to this kit.

· Main Hand 4 - Gear Shield:  A block that turns you invincible for 2s.  Very useful if you have no stamina for dodge.

· Main Hand 5 - Magnet:  A pretty sweet pull, albeit at a pretty short range.  Still, it helps in chasing and gets them in range for some extra damage.  Also use this to pull enemies out of stomps, or stop them from rezzing a buddy.

Bomb Kit:  This kit is the bomb(pun)!  All of its skills are delayed PBAoE, which make them hard to hit, however with a little CC we can land them.  Enemies will try to avoid them, which makes it great for area denial.  This kit works well with either power or condition damage.  Kit Refinement drops a regular bomb.

· Toolbelt - Big Ole Bomb:  Sits for a few seconds then explodes launching enemies.  Very good at denying enemies, and punishes those who ignore it.  Try this in WvW on keep walls =)  It is also a blast finisher again, yay!

· Main Hand 1 - Bomb:  Our spammable attack from this kit, it just deals damage.  I would only really spam this in a healing build (using the Elixir Infused Bombs trait), but it is not terribly efficient.

· Main Hand 2 - Fire Bomb:  This bomb causes a burn on a 10s cooldown.

· Main Hand 3 - Concussion Bomb:  Causes confusion 18s cooldown

· Main Hand 4 - Smoke Bomb:  Blinds enemies and causes a smoke field to combo off of.  Give AoE stealth, or shoot through to cause blindness.

· Main Hand 5 - Glue Bomb:  Immobilize and cripple you enemies.  Useful in your drop after the initial CC wears off.

Grenade Kit:  This has got to be our best kit for WvW.  Grenadier trait gives this kit an additional grenade per throw and a 1500 range!  Works well with Condition or power builds (each throw has 3 chances of proccing conditions).  If you haven't tried it, I would highly recommend it.  Kit refinement give a PBAoE grenade barrage.

· Toolbelt - Grenade Barrage:  Tosses 6 or 8(grenadier) grenades for high damage.  I have gotten over 11k hits with this ability (berserker gear).  Try to CC them before you drop this for max damage.

· Main Hand 1 - Grenade:  Our spammable attack from this kit, it just deals damage.  Good for causing AoE damage at a long range, and can still proc condition off of your traits.

· Main Hand 2 - Shrapnel Grenade:  These grenades have a short cooldown and cause a 12s bleed for each one.

· Main Hand 3 - Flash Grenade:  A 5s blind for each grenade.  Very powerful blind, against groups of enemies as well as

· Main Hand 4 - Freeze Grenade:  Chill is one of the most powerful conditions, and this nade causes up to 6s on a 20s cooldown in an AoE at 1500 range.  Impressive.

· Main Hand 5 - Poison Grenade:  Creates up to 3 poison combo fields  You will be amazed by the amount of "Poison" hearts that appear over your allies as they shoot through it.

Gadgets:  These are quick skills you can use to react to a situation.  They have good movement bonuses and CC.  They are easier to use than kits, because they take a single button press.

Utility - Personal Battering Ram:  45s cooldown single target knockback.  Many people compare this to taking the flamethrower kit (Air Blast).  The benefit seen with this skill, is that it is faster to tap a hotkey and have someone knocked back then swapping kits and using a knockback.  It also deals damage as an added bonus.
Toolbelt - Launch Personal Battering Ram:  The projectile on this skill is a projectile finisher, it deals damage, and it cripples.  It is definitely not a bad skill to have, especially for the low cooldown on the toolbelt skill.

Utility - Rocket Boots:  A stun breaker, -movement speed breaker, and distance maker it is an incredible skill to get you out of tough spots.  It also functions as a blast finisher, and can be used through a smoke combo field for stealth!  Ninja!
Toolbelt - Rocket Kick:  You do a flip and kick with this skill which does damage and burns for 5s.  It has a 20s cooldown which is great for static discharge.

Utility - Slick Shoes:  An AoE 2s knockdown, this skill combos well with the bomb kit.  When doing a bomb drop, be sure to use the Glue bomb early, so that it goes off after they get up from slick shoes.  You can also use it effectively to get away!
Toolbelt - Super Speed:  +100% movement speed for 5s.  Not bad, but I prefer the jump skills a bit more.  Still, the added mobility helps with hit and runs in WvW.

Utility - Throw Mine:  You can toss a mine that, when activated, knocksback and strips boons from enemies.  It’s pretty effective with an 18s cooldown.  Also a blast finisher.
Toolbelt - Mine Field:  Spreads 5 mines around yourself randomly that do damage and USED to cause a powerful blast finisher effect, but has since been removed.  Now it is sorta useless =(

Utility - Utility Goggles:  Stun breaker, gives immunity to blindness, and fury.  It can be situationally useful when fighting people with alot of blindness condition, or before a combo for extra crit, as well as its stun breaker of course.
Toolbelt - Analyze:  Gives enemy 10 stacks of vulnerability, which is very useful when starting a combo (10% more damage).  Also, your friends will benefit from this damage increase, so can be very powerful before spiking enemies (see “Calling Targets” in the WvW tips section).

Elixirs:  Alchemical formulas that have special effects on the fool who drinks them (that'd be you).  Elixirs give boons to yourself and allies, and can be traited to be used in support builds (formula 409).  They are pretty easy to use, effective, and a little boring (imo).

Utility - Elixir B:  Give yourself Fury, Might, Swiftness, and Retaliation.  Can be used in either power or condition builds, provides a decent damage increase with more crits and retaliation, and extra swiftness.  An all-around solid elixir.
Toolbelt - Toss Elixir:  Gives allies one of the above bonuses randomly.  It doesnt hurt, but isnt superb or anything.  It’s low cooldown however combos well with the Elixir traits.

Utility - Elixir C:  Convert all your conditions to boons.  If possible, you always want to include some way to drop conditions in your build.  Elixir C is perhaps the strongest way an engineer can do this if you aren’t taking the trait “Cleaning Formula 409.”  When using this trait with a few elixirs, Elixir C loses its efficiency.
Toolbelt - Toss Elixir:  Give the above benefits to allies except only 1 condition to 1 boon per second.  Lasts 5s.  Excellent condition removal for a support build.

Utility - Elixir R:  Stunbreaker, and refills your endurance.  Two extra dodges is great, just make sure to use it wisely.  It will also reactivate the minor trait “Enduring Damage” if specced heavily into tools.
Toolbelt - Toss Elixir:  Cures a single condition on impact, and leaves a field that revives allies 20% hp per second for 6s.  Almost a must have for a support build, it allows you the flexibility to rez people while supporting others.  If allies die near each other, you can rez all of them.  NOTE:  This only works on people in the downed state, not on finished players.  It is also interesting that you can use it on yourself.  Right before you die, throw this on the ground to get right back up before the enemy can finish you (without quickness).

Utility - Elixir S:  Stunbreak, shrink, and evade all attacks for 3s.  Very good at getting out of hairy situations!  You can use this and then swap to a kit right after to continue doing damage.  It is also great to help you stomp or revive.
Toolbelt - Toss Elixir:  Gives allies stealth or stability.  Useful for finishing enemies in either case.  Overall a strong elixir for many situations.  Getting the use of this elixir, or other stunbreakers down is probably the largest thing you can do to improve your skill.

Utility - Elixir U:  Gain Quickness and a random negative attribute.  This skill is great for doing max dps from a safe location, or going balls to the wall to burst someone down quickly.  Do not use this if any of the negative possibilities would hurt more than the buff.  Despite the tooltip, Quickening Zephyr or Haste only lasts for 4s where frenzy lasts for 5s (ty giri).
Toolbelt - Toss Elixir:  Creates a wall that grants stealth to allies (and light field), or a wall that blocks projectiles and blinds foes (and smoke field), or a wall that reflects projectiles (and light field).  These are all pretty good utilities from other classes, and are fairly similar in usage.

Turrets:  Turrets are stationary defenses that you can build that have special abilities.  They are strong when combined with the engineer's damage.  They are great for area denial, and defending points.  You can trait them to knockback enemies when destroyed.  Each turret also has special toolbelts when they are not deployed, which can be pretty strong for certain builds.  When they are deployed, they have an "Overcharge" ability that appears instead of "Deploy X Turret" and "Detonate" skill instead of their normal toolbelt skill.  The Detonate skill is a blast finisher, which is awesome because you prepare finishers before a fight, toss a combo field near your turrets and then detonate them at will for additional effects!

Utility - Flame Turret:  Shoots out a flame jet that burns enemies.  One of the stronger damaging turrets, but has a very short range.
Overcharge - Smoke Screen:  Smoke combo field, blinds enemies every second nearby the flame turret.  If you can  somehow get people to ignore it, it is very good at keeping you alive for 5 more seconds =)  You can also combo this field with Detonate for a stealth.  Pretty rad!
Toolbelt - Throw Napalm:  Shoots our a ball of napalm that explodes and causes burning in an AoE 60s cooldown.  Situationally useful, but with a 60s cooldown, it seems a bit weak.

Utility - Rifle Turret:  Deals ok damage, at 1,000 range every 2s.
Overcharge - Automatic Fire:  Increases rate of fire, and each shot bleeds for 5s.
Toolbelt - Surprise Shot:  Projectile Finisher at 1000 range, but the best part:  10s cooldown.  This is the lowest cooldown for a belt skill and combos very well with static discharge.

Utility - Rocket Turret:  High damage every 4s at 1200 range.  Inflicts burning in an AoE on impact.  Definitely one of the big hitters for turret builds.
Overcharge - Explosive Rockets:  Increases the damage of the turret, and causes a knockdown for 2s
Toolbelt - Rocket:  Just does damage on a 60s cooldown.  Pretty disappointing from an otherwise solid turret.

Utility - Thumper Turret:  Has high health, and does moderate damage in an AoE every 3s
Overcharge - Thump:  Next attack launches enemies and deals more damage.
Toolbelt - Shockwave:  Deals damage in an AoE and is a blast finisher.  This turret has 2 blast finishers in a single utility.  Pretty sweet =)

Utility - Net Turret:  Immobilizes foe every 10s for 3s.  Good control skill.
Overcharge - Electrified net:  Next shot is in 5s instead of 10, deals damage, and also stuns for 2 seconds.
Toolbelt - Net Shot:  Fires an additional net to immobilize for 3s.  60s cooldown though...

3.4.Elite Skills

Use elite skills when you are at a disadvantage, or to speed up a confrontation.  Do not be afraid to use these because of the cooldown, just try to judge whether you will need it or not.

Elixir-X:  Change into a whirling tornado (Elementalist Elite) or rampaging brute (Warrior Elite).  Both provide good damage and great CC.  Tornado is fun to use situationally in WvW (keep walls).  It constantly knocks everyone back, but also makes for a big target.  The brute has a lot of single target CC with good damage.

Mortar:  Another situational elite that shines in WvW.  It could use a little love in the damage department, but has a big, long range, aoe knockback that is pretty sweet.  I prefer grenades personally, but I could always use this for my shorter ranged teammates.

Supply Crate:  Our best Elite (IMO), it is a blast finisher, and AoE stun, tosses down a healing turret and bandages, and gives you turrets for extra support.  I think it is probably one of the best elites in the game, and can turn the tide in a large battle.  Combo this elite with a bunch of AoE damage for maximum potential.


4.Traits

Now what makes one engineer different from another?  Yeah, we’ve already picked our favorite tools… TRAITS!  Engineers are probably one of the most trait reliant classes in GW2.  I am going to cover the most prominent traits the engineer has to offer and how to combine them for maximum synergy.

4.1.Explosives
Bombs, Fire, pretty colors.  These are some of your favorite words.  This tree improves your Power and Condition Duration while also focusing on buffing your explosive damage.
· T1 – Incendiary Powder:  Most of our builds incorporate high crit chance, so causing a 2s burn on crit is a significant increase to our damage.
· T1 – Forceful Explosions:  Bombs and mines have pretty small AoE, so increasing their area is pretty helpful
· T2 – Explosive Powder:  Engineers do a lot of explosive damage with grenades, bombs, mines etc.  If you are planning a venture into an explosive kit, a flat 10% increase is nothing to sneeze at.
· T2 – Accelerant Packed Turrets:  Using turrets to knockback enemies is awesome.  First of all, it is a blast finisher, and secondly is gives you extra damage and CC.  This trait is great if you are focusing on turrets.
· T2 – Enhance Performance:  Engineers have an advantage over other classes when looking at “On Heal” abilities.  Our medkit has no cooldown!  When we swap into this kit, it acts like a normal healing skill regarding these traits.  This means we can have a permanent 3 stacks of might, and 5s of 6 stacks of might with this single trait.  Pretty nifty =)
· T3 – Grenadier:  This is an extremely strong trait for our grenade kit.  It boosts our damage, makes it longer range (1500), and adds an additional stack for the condition nades.  On-Crit abilities with the nade kit also have 3 chances of activating with each throw (as long as they all hit).
· T3 – Autodefense Bomb Dispenser:  I haven’t used this trait yet, but a smoke bomb when you are disabled seems awesome!  Smoke bomb causes blind, and you can combo through it to enter stealth.  Rocket boots would allow a stun-free, invisible trip out of the hurt!  (Smoke combo field + blast finisher)

4.2.Firearms
This..is..my…BOOMSTICK!  This tree gives you precision and condition damage while improving how your rifle and pistol perform.
· T1 – Sharpshooter (Minor):  For our crit heavy builds out there, the extra bleed damage is excellent for condition builds OR power builds.  Stacking some bleeds is a quick way to cause additional pressure, as well as protect other conditions that are more powerful (like chill).
· T1 – Knee Shot:  This trait seems a little strange, because when they are immobilized, why would you need to also cripple them?  Well in this case, we have 2 very short immobilizes that work well with this skill, glue shot and glue bomb.
· T1 – Infused precision:  This is a way to keep your swiftness buff up in combat (on a crit based build).  We can combine this with a trait in the alchemy tree called “Invigorating speed” for perma swiftness and vigor.
· T1 – Rifled Barrels:  In WvW, many times you will be hanging back and punishing those who get caught out of place.  This trait is useful to deal continuous damage at a farther range.  I think this is an excellent trait for WvW but its usefulness may be lower in sPvP.
· T1 – Precise Sights:  Another great trait for crit focused engineers, vulnerability is much stronger in a group fight, where multiple people are damaging a vulnerable target.
· T1 – Hair Trigger:  A shorter cooldown for pistol skills is great, especially for static shot (which I consider to be one of the strongest pistol skills).
· T2 – Target the Weak (Minor):  10% extra crit is awesome.  People are frequently under 50% health, and the extra crit helps them to get to 0% hp.
· T2 – Napalm Specialist:  20% bonus to your burn duration doesn’t sound that great at first, but when you realize that if you spec 30 points into explosives that your incendiary powder is a 3s burn instead of 2s you begin to realize it’s usefulness.
· T2 – Rifle Mod:  If you are going for a rifle burst build, 10% extra damage is great.  I would pick up extra damage before I would pick up a shorter cooldown for stuff.  As engineers, we have a lot of stuff to throw!
· T2 – Go for the Eyes:  Another great skill for a rifle engineer, your rifle has a chance to blind on crit.  You don’t even need that high of a crit chance, because every other crit will apply this debuff (after it’s internal cooldown).  This is a cheap way to increase your survivability in 1v1 situations.
· T3 – Juggernaut – One of my favorite Dota heroes, also a superhero.  This skill gives a tank additional toughness and a stacking might.  If you plan to be mainly in the flamethrower, pick this one up!
· T3 – Coated Bullets:  This trait turns your pistol into a shotgun.  A pistol’s shot fires an explosive round that explodes on each target it hits.  If they are stacked very closely, it will explode multiple times and cause massive, multiplicative damage.  Pretty rad, try it out.

4.3.Inventions
Don’t bother, inventions are for Asura, Bookah!  This tree gives you toughness and healing power and focuses on turrets and tankyness.
· T1 – Protective Shield:  Gives you protection when crit, but has a 20s internal cooldown.  I think the cooldown for this is a bit too high, but with the amount of crits in this game, it will probably be used every time it is off cooldown.  Protection is awesome for tanky builds.
· T1 – Explosive Decent:  I personally never use these types of traits because I know my way around in WvW, but this can prove to be useful when traveling.  I have theorycrafted the use of this, the trait “kit refinement”, and the toolbelt grenade barrage for 3 simultaneous hard hitting AoE’s, but have yet to try it.
· T1 – Cloaking Device:  This trait can save your bum very often.  Many non-engineers still don’t understand that we have this, so it can break agro off of us for a short time.
· T2 – Automated Medical Response (Minor):  Having your heal skills recharge when you reach 25% health is pretty good timing right?  AFAIK, this only works with Elixir-H and Healing turret, because Medkit’s main heal is on the toolbelt.
· T2 – Reinforced Shield:  I love the shield.  This makes the shield better.  Faster cooldowns and a little more toughness really helps for the tanky builds!
· T2 – Elite Supplies:  The tooltip doesn’t tell the whole story for this one.  The supply drop has more med kits, and a rifle turret in addition to its normal repertoire.  The mortar’s range is supposed to increase with this trait from 1400 to 1500, however does not due to a bug.  Elixir-X gains 3 seconds as a tornado and 5 seconds as a brute.
· T3 – Performance Enhancement(Minor):  10% of healing is added to power.  You do not lose the 10% of healing power.  This allows you to spec fully into healing gear and still have respectable power.  It synergizes well with buffing your bombs and using the below trait.
· T3 - Elixir Infused Bombs:  This turns your bombs into little healing explosions for everyone! Yay!  For a support engineer, this skill can help tremendously, especially if you get the trait Evasive Powder Keg(Minor) and the various endurance regen stuff (Perma-Vigor and Adrenal Implant).
· Turret Traits:  These are pretty self-explanatory, as they are all static increases to their effectiveness.  I would say if you are going turrets to pick up Rifled Turret Barrels, but the rest are easy to swap out for more utility.

4.4.Alchemy
“To obtain, something of equal value must be lost.  That is alchemy’s first law of Equivalent Exchange”
–Alphonse  This tree gives vitality and Boon duration and focuses on survivability, condition removal, and boons.
· T1 – Hidden Flask (Minor):  Elixir-B at 75% health isn’t bad, because in any fight you will always hit 75% health.  Might, fury, swiftness, and retaliation isn’t bad for a minor trait!
· T1 – Invigorating Speed:  This trait provides a possible permanent vigor boon for yourself when combines with “Speedy Kits” from tools or “Infused Precision” from firearms.  Note, it also works if allies give you swiftness, woot!  This boon is very important for survivability or for spamming bombs with Evasive Powder Keg from explosions.
· T1 – Protection Injection:  Another great way to get protection, except this one has a better internal cooldown.  When you start understanding combat, you will see that many powerful / bursty combos will start with some form of CC to make sure the damage lands on you.  If you are caught by this, protection injection reduces the damage you take from the combo by up to 33%.  RAD!
· T1 – Self Regulating Defenses:  This trait auto-drinks an elixir-s when you reach 25% health, which shrinks you, turns you invincible, and interrupts everything you are doing.  There are plenty of runes that perform a defense maneuver as their 6pc set bonus, so I choose not to use this.
· T2 – Backpack Regenerator:  Gives a permanent 125hp/s heal when you have a backpack equipped.  On a high toughness build, you can make the most of the extra healing.  It will stack with all other forms of regeneration, so it is definitely worth looking at for tanky kit builds.
· T2 – Cleaning Formula 409:  This trait is turns you into a crazy condition cleansing beast.  This is great for support builds, and for yourself as well.  The more elixirs you use, the bigger the payoff of this trait.
· T3 – HGH:  Sometimes protein shakes aren’t enough!  Every elixir you use, gives you 20 seconds of might.  This can get you into very high power thresholds.  Don’t forget that might gives you condition damage as well, so hybrid builds benefit the most from this.
· T3 – Automated Response:  You are immune to NEW conditions when under 25% health.  Conditions that were already applied still deal damage.  Great for a tanky build, but pretty useless for elixir builds with 409.

4.5.Tools
Speccing into this tree turns all your opponents into tools!  It grants you additional crit damage and faster recharge on your toolbelt skills.  It doesn’t really have a focus on any 1 part of the engineer, which is why theres so many goodies packed inside!
· T1 – Static Discharge:  Extremely strong trait for power builds and low cooldown toolbelt skills.  Anytime you use a toolbelt skill, it flings a lightning bolt at your target which bounces twice.
· T1 – Kit Refinement:  Creates a different effect for each kit when you equip it.  Medkit = Small aoe explosion, bomb kit drops a bomb, toolkit drops a box of nails, Flamethrower is an aoe flameblast, nade kit is a grenade barrage (zomg dmg), and elixir gun is a super elixir.  All of these have internal cooldowns, but are insta cast.  Lots of utility with this trait!
· T1 – Deployable Turrets:  This allows you to place your turrets in all kind of strange places.  If you are combining it with “Accelerant-Packed Turrets” you have a ranged KB.  Also if you are trying to keep your turrets alive, you can place them above you (players don’t look up).
· T1 – Speedy Kits:  Equipping a kit gives you swiftness!  Perma swiftness woot!  Combine with Invigorating speed for perma vigor too!  Man this trait is awesome.
· T2 – Inertial Converter (Minor):  Toolbelt recharges instantly when you hit 25% hp.  Great for the med kit’s heal as well as Elixir-R toss.  This gives you back your major heal from the med kit right before you croak.
· T2 – Power Wrench:  Look closely at this trait if you are planning to use the tool kit.  It makes throw wrench and smack cripple enemies for 5 seconds, as well as a 20% cut in recharge time for the kit.  This really amps up the usability of the toolkit.
· T3 – Enduring Damage:  10% more damage when you have full endurance.  This is a hefty increase, and is easy to have max endurance with perma vigor and the below trait.
· T3 – Adrenal Implant:  Regenerate endurance 50% faster.  This stacks with Vigor.  Makes you a dodging machine!  With vigor up, and your various CC, blocks, and invulns you can be extremely tanky.

5.Gear Tips & Tricks
Coming Soon!
6.Combos

Thought you could get away from combos in a non-fighting game did you?  Well think again!  I find many players have differing experience with combos and how they work in this game.  To make it simple, you have 2 steps to every combo in the game.  The first step is to lay a “Combo Field.”  These usually have visual cues to indicate what type of field they are.  An easy one is the Fire field, which is depicted with fire burning in various shapes on the ground.  Great, so you have a bonfire… now you are wondering where the marshmallows are?  Well in this case, we don’t need to make smores, instead we want to give 3 stacks of might to our buddies (AoE).  Well, we can use a “Blast Finisher” to create that effect.  You can tell what skill is a blast finisher by (in most cases) reading the tooltip.

There are 9 types of Combo Fields, and 4 types of Combo Finishers.  Engineers can create 6 of the different Combo Fields, and any of the finishers although Blast Finishers are our most prevalent one followed closely by the Projectile Finisher.  We only have 1 source of a Whirl Finisher, which is random chance with Elixir-X.  We also only have 2 sources of Leap finishers, one which is random on Elixir-X and the other which is for Rifle.

Most of the time, projectile and whirl finishers have similar effects, and blast finishers have the same effect as leap finishers except in an AoE.  This will help you memorize their effects without really studying them (who wants to study anyways?)

If you want a list of all professions and their combos, go here:  http://mastodonte.fr...s/tool-combo#en

Finishers
· Blast:  Big Ole Bomb, Detonate Turrets, Rocket Boots, Supply Crate, Magnetic Inversion (Shield 4), Shockwave (Thumper), Stomp (Elixir X brute)
· Projectile:  Explosive Shot (20%), Hip Shot (20%), Launch Personal Battering Ram, Throw Wrench, Surprise Shot, Tranquilizer Dart, Throw Shield
· Whirl:  Elixir X tornado (50% chance to get tornado)
· Leap:  Jump Shot, Dash (Elixir X brute, 50% chance to get brute)

AoE Swiftness – Just finish slaying a group of invaders, and want to get to the next group quicker?  Have an elementalist drop static field (Lightning combo field) and drop all your blast finishers (detonate turrets, shield KB, Big Ole Bomb) and you can stack swiftness up to a minute!
Stealth (AoE) – Need a quick get away?  Or perhaps you are planning an ambush?  Either way, drop a smoke combo field with a smoke bomb from your bomb kit, or smoke screen with your flame turret (also 1/3 chance with Toss Elixir U) and then a blast finisher.  A tricky way of getting out of trouble is to rocket boots (stun breaker and movement inhibitor cleanse) in a smoke field for a stealthy, clean getaway.  You can also leap through a smoke field for stealth for yourself.
Healing (AoE) / Regeneration – Sometimes adding a little support for our squad goes a long way.  We have plenty of blast finishers, so lets add ours to a water field and heal in an AoE.  Leaping causes the same effect but only for you.  If you fire Projectile Finishers or whirl thought a water field, it will give people near your target regeneration (If you are close you get it too).
Blindness – At first, I didn’t think blindness was that powerful of a condition, but once you get used to the professions various skill rotations you can time your blindness abilities to make it most efficient.  For combos, the way we can inflict blindness is with a smoke bomb or the flame turrets overcharge ability (also 1/3 chance with Toss Elixir U).  Shoot through it (projectile finisher) or Elixir-X tornado to cause blindness to your foes.  Another way to cause blindness is if you see any “Dark Combo Fields.”  These will let you cause blindness is an AoE with a Blast Finisher, or a Leap Finisher for a single target.
Remove Conditions – Using a Light Combo Field, you can fire projectiles through it to cure conditions on people near your target, or yourself (if you are close to melee).  This is good to keep in mind if you have little condition removal options in your build.  We have only 2 methods of getting a light field:  Elixir Gun #5 ability “Super Elixir” or 2/3 chance with Toss Elixir U
Leech Health – When you fire off projectile finishers through a dark combo field you will steal health.  I actually don’t notice this as much as the lifestealing food, but you might as well use this field if you see it.
Daze – Projectile finishers through static field (or any Lightning combo Field if they make more) will cause Daze on your enemy.  Don’t bother using the shield throw for this, because it already dazes.
Chill – Shooting Projectile finishers through a frozen field will give cause your shots to chill the target.  The only frozen field we have is from the mortar, so try to place it where your allies can make use of it.
Weakness (AOE) – Leap or Blast in a poison combo field will cause weakness to your foe(s).  Take advantage of this to lessen the damage being done to you.  Our only poison field is with the grenade kit, but that works out due to grenade’s popularity in WvW.
DOT Combos – I lumped all of these together for simplicities sake, but these are all combos which places a condition that causes damage.  Fields of Chaos, Fire, Poison, and Light all have a way to cause damage.  With projectiles or whirls, Chaos causes confusion, Fire causes burning, and Poison causes POISON!  We can use auto attack on Pistol or Rifle for a 20% chance at a combo, or we can use Throw wrench or surprise shot on our toolbelt.  Using Leap or Blast finishers, we can give retaliation to ourselves and allies which causes damage to enemies whenever the attack you.
ARMOR Combos – You can gain Chaos, Fire, or Frost Armor with Leap Finishers (or Blast for frost or chaos) which will cause random conditions when you are hit (Chaos), burn enemies when you are hit (Fire) or chill enemies when you are hit (Frost).


7.Engineer Builds

Engineers have had a rough time getting acclimated to the world of Tyria, and have had to make many adjustments.  For those of you that played an engineer in the BWE's and didnt like em, I encourage you to try them again.  We are in a very balanced state right now, and most builds are viable.  Here I will attempt to break down the thought process that goes into making each build...

So the first question you should ask yourself is:  "What playstyle do I want to play?"

Engineers are effective in any playstyle that GW2 has to offer.  Our main categories are DPS, Support, or Tank.

7.1.DPS (Damage per Second) Role

So you decided you want to pew-pew a bit, eh?  The question is, do you want to watch them die slowly and painfully, suffering every second whilst you dance around them in some kind of evil rain-dance?  Or would you rather cause them to explode into a red mist interspersed with bits of sharp bone and gooey flesh?

The former?
Condition Damage:  For an engineer, this means a focus on Pistols or Pistol / Shield, although you could use a hybrid with rifle to a decent effect.

· Gear:  Focus on high condition damage with a good amount of precision and vitality or toughness.  Sigil of Superior Earth is recommended.

· Traits:  Grab incendiary powder and sharpshooter to use for crits.  Buff your pistols, survivability, and utilities in that order.

· Utilities:  Grenade kit for crit proc conditions and poison / chill, get CC kits so that conditions have time to kill

Example Build*

The latter?  
Power:  For engineers, rifle scales better with Power.  Pistol can still work, but is less optimized for burst damage.

· Gear:  Focus on heavy power, high precision, and decent crit damage.

· Traits:  Buff your damage with utilities, vulnerability, on crits, and mobility.  I recommend static discharge, but not required.

· Utilities:  Flamethrower for KB and burst from 2 skill, Toolkit for burst from toolbelt, pry bar, and 1 chain, Grenade kit for ranged burst (especially when traited).  CC will help you land your combos, and is recommended.  If you take static discharge, you will want low cooldown toolbelt utilities for maximum effect.

Example Build*

7.2.Support Role

Keeping your pals alive and well, while enabling them to lay the smack down on your enemies is your forte.  You would rather crack open a brew, watch the battle unfold, and help hold the line!  We have a variety of ways to do this, and a good support build will employ their buffs, heals, and CC combined.  It is important to utilize your water and light combo fields for heals and condition removal.

· Gear:  Grab lots of healing power and survivability (vit/tough)

· Traits:  Elixirs, or Elixir-Infused Bombs are a good place to start.  Make sure you are pretty tanky as well, so that you can take hits for your buddies.  Vigor and endurance regen will help your Bombs on dodge and survivability.  Formula 409 is great for condition removal.  Kit refinement gives super-elixir on elixir gun, and an extra bomb on bomb kit.

· Utilities:  Elixir gun is awesome for its condition removal, Bomb kit for rapid heals, Healing turret for AoE condition removal, regen, and heals.  Elixir-S and Elixir-R are great for supporting with buffs or revives.

Example Build*

7.3.Tank Role

Hah!  That tickled, puny warrior!  What was that called, 100 feathers?  You like causing people to pull their hair out.  We have an extensive amount of tricks we can pull out which allow us to just... not... DIE!  Combine this with a bunch of CC, and you have yourself an effective build to enable teammates to destroy your enemies from a safer distance.  Your goal is to be up front soaking up damage and distracting enemies from the higher priority target, your squishies.  I prefer Pistol Shield for this role, but you can use whatever feels best.

· Gear:  Focus on Toughness and Vitality with a sprinkle of healing power.

· Traits:  These are pretty easy, just focus on Inventions and Alchemy unless you are going Juggernaut with Flamethrower

· Utilities:  Elixir-R will make them rage.  Just before you die, throw it on the ground to self rez and pop back up and mangle them.  Elixir-S is a great escape tool.  Toolkit works good with the block and the pull with decent damage.  Flamethrower with juggernaut gives more toughness, and some extra might!

Example Build*
Example FT Build*

*These are my opinion for a fairly optimized build.  The secret to engineer is to combine facets from ALL roles, allowing you to be the most versatile and skillful class.


8.WvW Tips

Engineers excel in WvW in several key areas.  We are area denial masters, high end (top?) AoE dps, have high mobility with speedy kits (perma swiftness), and are solid skirmishers.  Below I will explain these 4 disciplines in more depth.

8.1.Area Denial

First, lets define what I mean by Area Denial.  This means forcing your enemies to go a different direction by contesting a zone.  For instance, if an enemy sees a Big Ole Bomb laying on the ground, they are unlikely to try to pass that terrain.  The zone you "cast" is the range at which you can do significant dps, and for engineers this is a large area.  With our grenades, we can do high damage in an AoE enough to deny the enemy from getting into range (especially in packs).  Think of this as a mobile siege weapon (arrow cart).

Area denial while very important, is difficult to quantify.  You don't have numbers to judge how effectively you are doing your job.  If enemies are staying out of your range, and you are forcing them to take a different path then you are denying them an area.  This is why mesmer "portal bombing" is so effective.  It negates the zone that you project.  When performing this job (very frequently), have CC at the ready to stop the mesmer portals.

8.2.AoE DPS

Area of Effect Damage per Second (AoE DPS) is one of the strongest points engineers have going for it.  Our grenade kit, when specced properly dishes out 3 grenades at 1500 range, each doing 700ish non-crit.  The caveat is that they are slow moving projectiles, and are difficult to land.  We can use this ability to take out siege at long distance rapidly, but if siege at towers are placed far enough back from the wall, our grenades cannot hit them.

I should also mention the mortar elite.  It can be used in certain circumstances to break up groups of enemies (turtle bashing).  This requires some coordination (mesmers need to remove stability) and you can use your #5 skill to knock them apart.  It also does respectable dps, although not as much as the grenade kit, and is less mobile.

8.3.Mobility

Engineers have respectable mobility with the trait "Speedy Kits".  There is not much to say other than that we can run supply very quickly, and respond faster to threats called in map chat.  If you have not tried speedy kits in WvW, I suggest trying it at least... it is extremely helpful.

8.4.Skirmishing

In DA we have a saying, “Take 10 steps, kill somebody.”  There is alot to be said in this section, much of which carries over to sPvP.  A skirmish is a fight in the open field, generally without siege and occurs near supply camps or dolyak paths.  Here are a list of important events that take place during a skirmish and how to react.

· Call Targets:  Make sure you are in a group, and make sure that someone is calling targets.  If your group is on top of their game, that target will die quickly.  Try to call targets as soon as they are "out of position."  If you can burst them down, and get them in a downed state, your side is at an advantage.  The enemy team will likely try to resurrect that player in which you can unleash HELL on them with grenades (or other AoE skills).  If you can help it, do not allow them to get that player back up.

· Rez Friendlies:  Inverse of the above situation, try to get your players up while using block skills, invisibility, or stability.  Do not die while trying to rez your friendlies or your team will begin to wipe.  Cautiously keep the enemy at bay while your buddies bring him up... remember that you are a master of area denial!

· Deny Area:  Keep those enemies off your flank, or slow down their charge.  Get them in a bottleneck to rip them down, deny them from rezzing their pals.  If they are trying to drop siege, drop a supply crate to help them out!  Hammer that position until they scatter like lemmings!

· Finish Enemies:  In a massive brawl, when the lines have broken and there is no deadzone... finishing enemies is very important.  Use your CC to stop enemies from rezzing each other, and use Elixir-S to stomp them out.  Toss-S will give your Stealth or Stability making stomps easier to achieve.

Edited by Primalpat, 14 November 2012 - 04:16 PM.

[Velron]

DA Engineer squad ftw!

Nice guide Primalpat!

[Mura]

Nice guide.   Some feedback:

Quote

Main Hand 5 - Smoke Vent:  A PBAoE blind.  Gives us extra power versus melee foes.  Kinda "meh"

I disagree that this is "meh"  I know it's  a matter of opinion, but in a guide, I feel it's worth mentioning that the Smoke Vent is fantastic defense against a thief, and good defense against any other melee situation as well.

Quote

Main Hand 5 - Magnet:  A pretty sweet pull, albeit at a pretty short range.  Still, it helps in chasing and gets them in range for some extra damage.

Also helpful for preventing the enemy from stomping your ally, and is a good interrupt in general.

Then you have the sections where you mention specific utility skills.  It might be nice to mention the following are also blast finishers:
Rocket Boots
Throw Mine (yes you mentioned the Mine Field used to be a blast finisher, but I would mention that the normal Throw Mine Detonate still is a blast finisher)

Under Turrets, you did mention that the toolbelt skill of Thumper Turret is a blast finisher, but there is no mention that Detonating any type of turret is also a blast finisher.

May I suggest a section about combo fields and finishers?  One of the neatest things about the engineer is that by ourselves, we have access to creating different kinds of combo fields, and then access to a huge list of blast finishers.  Those give AoE benefits to our allies, or in some cases AoE conditions to our enemies (poison grenade + blast finisher comes to mind)

Then I have a final note about the Goggles Toolbelt skill - Analyze:

Quote

Toolbelt - Analyze:  Gives enemy 10 stacks of vulnerability, which is very useful when starting a combo (10% more damage).

It might be worth mentioning that 10 stacks of vulnerability is pretty awesome, great damage on your enemy, and your allies will appreciate that too if you're focus firing an enemy down.

Edited by Mura, 07 November 2012 - 05:21 PM.

[MrForz]

Ach, you beat me to it, I was about to post a WvW based guide. So far, everything you wrote is what I intended to write. Although I'd have wished to get more in depth with the Traits and Building:

Cleaning Formula 409 which is very special as it brings the Elixir H's usefulness above the Med Kit even with all its advantages.

Cloaking Device which is very underrated but in a large scale slaughter where spells fly, blades spin, and guns blaze. Just the fact that you turned invisible from a random immobilization will cancel pretty much all the aggro you ever had.

Backpack Regenerator which half of us engineers wonder if it's bugged or not, it grants regeneration but not the boon itself. If you do switch kits during your fights I highly recommend it. The amount of sustain you get from this is impressive even if it's not much healing.

I'd also emphasize the usefulness of the Slick Shoes in WvW, which allows hit and run builds and gives an incredible edge against melee characters.

And finally, other utility skills synergies, such as what I call my all around 'fighter' build:

http://gw2skills.net...K7UupkTNq4QwMAA

Which is designed to take nearly any player head on, with effective use of the shield skills and Rocket Kick to counter-strike after a successfull Static Shield block. You can make creative uses of Slick Shoes, fleeing a small group of ennemies, completly disabling melee opponents, interrupting the rest. We may not have much bleeding damage but our burns are something to be reckoned with. You'll have a rather hard time dying, and can flee out of combat quite effectively with Super Speed.

I'm also going to mention combo fields. Most of our combos are all about shooting projectiles through different fields, one that is rarely talked about is the Smoke Bomb + Rocket Boots which grants AOE stealth and will stealth you DURING your flying session, some kind of home made Shadowstep. It saved me the few times I ever used it (getting chased by a small army then fly back toward them while stealthed and run on the other side).

You can also replace the finisher with the Supply Crate one which will instead act like a Thieves Guild ability, stealthing you while calling reinforcements (but instead of some generic hooded assassins you get turrets!)

You can change your skills on the fly as they're pretty much all viable, adapting to what you're expecting to encounter. Being unpredictable can sometimes beat viability! And most importantly, it gives the occasion to mess around with our gadgets. This is why I love the Engineer.

Oh, and I almost forgot. You engineers are perfect WvW commandos, on par with the Thief, so go out there and starve your ennemy of their key assets!

Edited by MrForz, 07 November 2012 - 07:01 PM.

[Primalpat]

Mura, on 07 November 2012 - 05:15 PM, said:

I disagree that this is "meh"  I know it's  a matter of opinion, but in a guide, I feel it's worth mentioning that the Smoke Vent is fantastic defense against a thief, and good defense against any other melee situation as well

Thanks Mura for the feedback!  I actually wrote this back closer to launch, and was a little peeved about them removing the pull on the flamethrower.  This was a biased point, and I have revised it.  It is indeed quite good especially for countering a counter-stomp XD.


Also helpful for preventing the enemy from stomping your ally, and is a good interrupt in general.

Thanks, I have elaborated on the usefulness of this ability!

Then you have the sections where you mention specific utility skills.  It might be nice to mention the following are also blast finishers:
Rocket Boots
Throw Mine (yes you mentioned the Mine Field used to be a blast finisher, but I would mention that the normal Throw Mine Detonate still is a blast finisher)

Excellent point, thanks for noticing!  This will be changed.

Under Turrets, you did mention that the toolbelt skill of Thumper Turret is a blast finisher, but there is no mention that Detonating any type of turret is also a blast finisher.

Bah!  I could have swore i mentioned that, good catch.

May I suggest a section about combo fields and finishers?  One of the neatest things about the engineer is that by ourselves, we have access to creating different kinds of combo fields, and then access to a huge list of blast finishers.  Those give AoE benefits to our allies, or in some cases AoE conditions to our enemies (poison grenade + blast finisher comes to mind)

I originally had plans to go in depth about combo finishers, but thought that I could cover them in enough detail with the actual skills.  The fact that you mentioned this means that I do need some more depth on combo fields and finishers.  I think I will create a section that provides more depth to the fundamentals of combos, in addition to the lightly mentioned combos in the skills section.

Then I have a final note about the Goggles Toolbelt skill - Analyze:

It might be worth mentioning that 10 stacks of vulnerability is pretty awesome, great damage on your enemy, and your allies will appreciate that too if you're focus firing an enemy down.

I will elaborate on it.  It is especially useful when spiking enemy players down, as all your teammates benefit from it.

Thank you for the feedback!

MrForz, on 07 November 2012 - 05:32 PM, said:

Ach, you beat me to it, I was about to post a WvW based guide. So far, everything you wrote is what I intended to write. Although I'd have wished to get more in depth with the Traits and Building:

Thanks for the feedback MrForz!  Similar to what I was explaining to Mura above, I had originally planned for a trait section, but thought that I could explain in enough detail the traits that combo with the skills in the skills section.  Inevitably, I managed to miss some traits that I find very useful, but dont use on a day to day basis.  I will create a trait section to further explain them for different builds.

Cleaning Formula 409 which is very special as it brings the Elixir H's usefulness above the Med Kit even with all its advantages.

I agree to a point, but you could say the same about the medkit and its combo traits / runes.  Either way, It is worth mentioning this trait when I am talking about the healing skills for sure!  Thanks!

Cloaking Device which is very underrated but in a large scale slaughter where spells fly, blades spin, and guns blaze. Just the fact that you turned invisible from a random immobilization will cancel pretty much all the aggro you ever had.

Agreed, I will definitely mention this in the planned traits section.

Backpack Regenerator which half of us engineers wonder if it's bugged or not, it grants regeneration but not the boon itself. If you do switch kits during your fights I highly recommend it. The amount of sustain you get from this is impressive even if it's not much healing.

You can stack a bunch of regeneration effects from different classes / buffs.  There is regen food too, the guardian regen, and the ele's regen.  Backpack Regenerator is something I definitely want to test a little further, but it seems like it works differently in sPvP than it does in PvE or WvW.

I'd also emphasize the usefulness of the Slick Shoes in WvW, which allows hit and run builds and gives an incredible edge against melee characters.

Added a little extra about this skill.

And finally, other utility skills synergies, such as what I call my all around 'fighter' build:

http://gw2skills.net...K7UupkTNq4QwMAA

Which is designed to take nearly any player head on, with effective use of the shield skills and Rocket Kick to counter-strike after a successfull Static Shield block. You can make creative uses of Slick Shoes, fleeing a small group of ennemies, completly disabling melee opponents, interrupting the rest. We may not have much bleeding damage but our burns are something to be reckoned with. You'll have a rather hard time dying, and can flee out of combat quite effectively with Super Speed.

Excellent build!  I am running something not too far from that.  I would use a different sigil than the +10% bleeding duration:  Sigil of Superior Corruption-> gives 10 ConDmg every kill and stacks 25 times.  This sigil applies its buff to the flamethrower as well =)

I'm also going to mention combo fields. Most of our combos are all about shooting projectiles through different fields, one that is rarely talked about is the Smoke Bomb + Rocket Boots which grants AOE stealth and will stealth you DURING your flying session, some kind of home made Shadowstep. It saved me the few times I ever used it (getting chased by a small army then fly back toward them while stealthed and run on the other side).

You can also replace the finisher with the Supply Crate one which will instead act like a Thieves Guild ability, stealthing you while calling reinforcements (but instead of some generic hooded assassins you get turrets!)

Yup, I will be making a section on it!

You can change your skills on the fly as they're pretty much all viable, adapting to what you're expecting to encounter. Being unpredictable can sometimes beat viability!

Oh, and I almost forgot. You engineers are perfect WvW commandos, on par with the Thief, so go out there and starve your ennemy of their key assets!

Thanks to both of you for the great feedback.  Hopefully we can continue to improve it for new engy brothers =)

[kubetz]

I thanked you for this guide already on reddit and on the official forums, but it deserves more, so thanks!

When you will have a bit of time, please add a short section about how kits and turrents are scaling (or not scaling) with engineer's stats (and weapon stats specifically).

It would be great if you can add also a chapter about how sigils are working for the engineer (e.g. if using kits) and also what sigils are generally recommended and how an engineer should get max out of the stacking sigils, for example. In that chapter it would be worth mentioning the state of engineers and "on weapon swap" sigils so people won't get some and expect them to work like it works with elementlist attunements.

Thanks again and keep up the good work!

[Primalpat]

kubetz, on 07 November 2012 - 10:51 PM, said:

I thanked you for this guide already on reddit and on the official forums, but it deserves more, so thanks!

When you will have a bit of time, please add a short section about how kits and turrents are scaling (or not scaling) with engineer's stats (and weapon stats specifically).

It would be great if you can add also a chapter about how sigils are working for the engineer (e.g. if using kits) and also what sigils are generally recommended and how an engineer should get max out of the stacking sigils, for example. In that chapter it would be worth mentioning the state of engineers and "on weapon swap" sigils so people won't get some and expect them to work like it works with elementlist attunements.

Thanks again and keep up the good work!

Good point, I will add a "Gear Tips and Tricks" section highlighting some of the synergies between runes, sigils, and engineer abilities.  The thing is, I cannot explain every gear setup due to the vast number of possibilities.  Engineers are so versatile in their build and gear choices too!

Thanks for the thanks!  I hope it has helped you and other engineers!

[Rouzeki]

I've been an sPvP junkie for quite awhile but I just recently dove in to WvW so I appreciate the slant that gets in this guide.

I cannot believe that I just now learned that Supply Crate is a blast finisher.  I am dumbstruck at how big of a noob I am.  Can't wait to use this!

[girigi122]

Few things:

Quote

Main Hand 3 - Flash Grenade:  A 5s blind for each grenade.  Very powerful blind.

What is a powerful blind? It stacks in duration, not intensity. And it offers no damage.

A powerful blind is smoke bomb, since it is constnatly reapplied. One long blind is crap, when compared to many small blinds.

Quote

Overcharge - Smoke Screen:  Smoke combo field, blinds enemies every second nearby the flame turret.  If you can  somehow get people to ignore it, it is very good at keeping you alive for 5 more seconds =)  You can also combo this field with Detonate for a stealth.  Pretty rad!

You fail to mention that the bomb kit offers a blast finisher, and a smoke field on shorter cooldowns. And that the rocket turret offers better burns. There is no point in taking the flame turret.

Quote

Healing Turret:  This skill is great for team support as well as healing for yourself.  It is versatile in that it gives you several ways to cleanse conditions, heal and regenerate.  You can put down the turret, overcharge it, and then pop your toolbelt (Regenerating Mist) and detonate it inside the water field for extra healing in an AoE.  The only thing I can say I don't like about it is that it feels a bit clunky.

You fail to mention that it does not benefit from any stats, meaning any regen you gain from it is crap.
Plus, how do you pop your toolbelt, while having your turret out? That's impossible.

Quote

Utility - Elixir R:  Stunbreaker, and refills your endurance.  Last time I used this it had a bit of a casting time, so it was difficult to use.  Not sure if this has been changed or not.

You don't know if its changed? Well freaking check. It takes you 5 seconds to go to the mists. Yes it has changed, and currently it is the best stun breaker because:

Potentially can be 32s cooldown, and it offers two guaranteed dodges. Two dodges equal about the same evade time as elixir S with a much shorter cooldown and it isn't bugged.

Plus the toolbelt is useful on many levels.

Quote

· T3 – Adrenal Implant:  Regenerate endurance 50% faster.  This stacks with Vigor.  Makes you a dodging machine!  With vigor up, and your various CC, blocks, and invulns you can be extremely tanky.

Does not stack with vigor. Which makes it a poor trait since vigor is easy to get with an engineer. You need 20 points to get 100% vigor uptime, and you need 30 points to get 100% uptime... of a crap version of vigor.

I'd also mention that elixir C isn't that good since an all elixir build, or a few elixirs= great condition removal with 409.

I take elixir H and Elixir R and I have more than enough condition removal, without needing C and gain all the benefits of having other elixirs. Elixir C is too weak for that role.

Napalm on the flamethrower is horribly weak. Its just a combo field. 1s burn on walking over it is crap. Compare it to other flame combo fields, such as on the ele, and it does not stack up at all.

That said, air blast pretty much blows personal battering ram out of the water. 3 times shorter cooldown for an AoE version of it, ableit not a launch. I don't see a point in PBR when you can just take a flamethrower.

Edited by girigi122, 09 November 2012 - 01:25 AM.

[girigi122]

Toolbelt - Toss Elixir:  Creates a wall that grants stealth to allies (and light field), or a wall that blocks projectiles and blinds foes (and smoke field), or a wall that reflects projectiles (and light field).  These are all pretty good utilities from other classes, and are fairly similar in usage.

SImilar? No they aren't.

Smoke field and Reflection are. Insofar as, they stop projectiles. But what if you get invisibility?

Edited by girigi122, 09 November 2012 - 01:34 AM.

[girigi122]

Toolbelt - Toss Elixir:  Gives allies one of the above bonuses randomly.  It doesnt hurt, but isnt superb or anything.
Disagree.

Elixir B is probably the weakest elixir, but its tossed version is amazing because it is so short duration, meaning condition removal and HGH can be used very often.

Elixir B itself is poor. When compared to stimulant from med kit, all it has is: 10s retaliation and 30s of might.

That's all? Retaliation isn't too special, and 30s of might is utterly pathetic. Give me 3 stacks for 10s then we'll talk. Might is not duration effective, its stacks so... how they designed this I don't know.

But again, its quite low duration so for HGH and 409, its good.

Toolbelt - Shockwave:  Deals damage in an AoE and is a blast finisher.  This turret has 2 blast finishers in a single utility.  Pretty sweet =)

On a 90s cooldown?

C'mon, don't pretend its a good skill.

· Toolbelt - Grenade Barrage:  Tosses 5 or 6 grenades for high damage.  I have gotten over 11k hits with this ability (berserker gear).  Try to CC them before you drop this for max damage.

6 with no traits
8 with grenadier

Make sure to get it right.

· T2 – Napalm Specialist:  20% bonus to your burn duration doesn’t sound that great at first, but when you realize that if you spec 30 points into explosives that your incendiary powder is a 3s burn instead of 2s your begin to realize it’s usefulness.


And when you realize that incendiary powder is already 3s, then you might change how you view this skill.

Its bad.

Yes it boosts something like incendiary powder, since its 3s.

But even blowtorch is 3s burns, remember, it applies 2 3s burns, not 1 6s one. So the amount of extra burn is less.

And all your other burns are all short duration. Bomb kits is 2s, flamethrower 1s.

Nothing major.

Utility - Elixir U:  5s of Quickness and a random negative attribute.  This skill is great for doing max dps from a safe location.  Do not use this if any of the negative possibilities would hurt more than the buff.

Another case where you don't know the facts, I'm sorry.

Its only 5s if you get frenzy, rest is 4s.

That is crucial.

· T1 – Deployable Turrets:  This allows you to place your turrets in all kind of strange places.  If you are combining it with “Accelerant-Packed Turrets” you have a ranged KB.  Also if you are trying to keep your turrets alive, you can place them above you (players don’t look up).

Horribly bugged out. Don't use.

I would also say the following:

NEVER USE TOOLBELT SKILLS WITH A KIT EQUIPPED

This is a habit engineers need to develop.

Kits currently make you lose weapon stats and sigils.

So for me, when I use grenade barrage with my rifle, I gain: sigil of fire, go for the eyes (yes from grenade barrage), 179 more power, more crit and more crit damage.

It is objectively better.

Its not the case for all, when something like elixir B is involved, since no stats can affect it, but get into the habit.

Edited by girigi122, 09 November 2012 - 01:48 AM.

[Rouzeki]

NEVER USE TOOLBELT SKILLS WITH A KIT EQUIPPED

Depends on the skill (e.g. toss elixir, net shot, and the like don't need weapon stats and sigils) but this is a great point especially for the dps toolbelt skills.

[Velron]

Girlgi122 is clearly looking at everything from purely a sPVP effectiveness perspective and that is not the intention of the guide. This becomes apparent immediately by your very first criticism of grenade kit's "powerful blind".

In WvW a 1500 range wide spread AOE blind is a very powerful blind, much more powerful than a PBAOE pulsing blind.

Edited by Velron, 09 November 2012 - 04:30 PM.

[Primalpat]

girigi122, on 09 November 2012 - 01:24 AM, said:

Few things:



What is a powerful blind? It stacks in duration, not intensity. And it offers no damage.

A powerful blind is smoke bomb, since it is constnatly reapplied. One long blind is crap, when compared to many small blinds.

Powerful in that it is an AoE and lasts awhile.  It can be powerful in situations when the enemy is melee and you are playing keep away.  The blind will last long enough for his first gap closer to come off cooldown to miss.  Not to mention against large groups of foes, where it will reduce much of the incoming damage to your group.


You fail to mention that the bomb kit offers a blast finisher, and a smoke field on shorter cooldowns. And that the rocket turret offers better burns. There is no point in taking the flame turret.



You fail to mention that it does not benefit from any stats, meaning any regen you gain from it is crap.
Plus, how do you pop your toolbelt, while having your turret out? That's impossible.

Thats a mistake.  I changed the wording on it because the toolbelt waterfield is very short.  I derped and forgot you cant use toolbelt when the turret is out.


You don't know if its changed? Well freaking check. It takes you 5 seconds to go to the mists. Yes it has changed, and currently it is the best stun breaker because:

Potentially can be 32s cooldown, and it offers two guaranteed dodges. Two dodges equal about the same evade time as elixir S with a much shorter cooldown and it isn't bugged.

Plus the toolbelt is useful on many levels.

Agreed.  Note that this guide was written in the last BWE, and has been bolted on and subtracted from a bunch.  Please allow for some stuff not being noticed on review.  Thanks for noticing this.


Does not stack with vigor. Which makes it a poor trait since vigor is easy to get with an engineer. You need 20 points to get 100% vigor uptime, and you need 30 points to get 100% uptime... of a crap version of vigor.

News to me, I tested it as working a few weeks ago in the mists.  I know some stuff works differently in WvW/PvE so maybe thats what happened.  Either way, Ill look at it again tonight.

I'd also mention that elixir C isn't that good since an all elixir build, or a few elixirs= great condition removal with 409.

I take elixir H and Elixir R and I have more than enough condition removal, without needing C and gain all the benefits of having other elixirs. Elixir C is too weak for that role.

​Yep, certainly worth mentioning.​

Napalm on the flamethrower is horribly weak. Its just a combo field. 1s burn on walking over it is crap. Compare it to other flame combo fields, such as on the ele, and it does not stack up at all.

And yet, it is easy to throw down before you swap back to pistol or rifle and combo through.  The extra burn is useful.  Also blast finisher gives your group a few stacks of might, so I wouldn't consider it weak.

That said, air blast pretty much blows personal battering ram out of the water. 3 times shorter cooldown for an AoE version of it, ableit not a launch. I don't see a point in PBR when you can just take a flamethrower.

Many others share the same sentiment, but PBR is great for static discharge builds, and does decent damage as well.  It also eliminates the need to swap kits for a quick KB.  Personally I choose FT, but I can see why someone would choose PBR.

girigi122, on 09 November 2012 - 01:34 AM, said:

Toolbelt - Toss Elixir:  Creates a wall that grants stealth to allies (and light field), or a wall that blocks projectiles and blinds foes (and smoke field), or a wall that reflects projectiles (and light field).  These are all pretty good utilities from other classes, and are fairly similar in usage.

SImilar? No they aren't.

Smoke field and Reflection are. Insofar as, they stop projectiles. But what if you get invisibility?

Similar in that they are all a way to reduce incoming damage.  Note that I said "fairly similar."

girigi122, on 09 November 2012 - 01:50 AM, said:

Toolbelt - Toss Elixir:  Gives allies one of the above bonuses randomly.  It doesnt hurt, but isnt superb or anything.
Disagree.

Elixir B is probably the weakest elixir, but its tossed version is amazing because it is so short duration, meaning condition removal and HGH can be used very often.

Elixir B itself is poor. When compared to stimulant from med kit, all it has is: 10s retaliation and 30s of might.

That's all? Retaliation isn't too special, and 30s of might is utterly pathetic. Give me 3 stacks for 10s then we'll talk. Might is not duration effective, its stacks so... how they designed this I don't know.

But again, its quite low duration so for HGH and 409, its good.

Mentioned the cooldown aspect.  I think by "duration" you mean recharge or cooldown.

Toolbelt - Shockwave:  Deals damage in an AoE and is a blast finisher.  This turret has 2 blast finishers in a single utility.  Pretty sweet =)

On a 90s cooldown?

C'mon, don't pretend its a good skill.

It's not a bad turret, it has high hp and extra knockbacks for a bunker engineer.  The blast finishers are nice too (only one i can think of with 2 in a single utility).

· Toolbelt - Grenade Barrage:  Tosses 5 or 6 grenades for high damage.  I have gotten over 11k hits with this ability (berserker gear).  Try to CC them before you drop this for max damage.

6 with no traits
8 with grenadier

Make sure to get it right.

The number of grenades are not that important...  It is the ability to land them all near each other on a target for maximum damage that is important.  I will change it for you.

· T2 – Napalm Specialist:  20% bonus to your burn duration doesn’t sound that great at first, but when you realize that if you spec 30 points into explosives that your incendiary powder is a 3s burn instead of 2s your begin to realize it’s usefulness.


And when you realize that incendiary powder is already 3s, then you might change how you view this skill.

Its bad.

Yes it boosts something like incendiary powder, since its 3s.

But even blowtorch is 3s burns, remember, it applies 2 3s burns, not 1 6s one. So the amount of extra burn is less.

And all your other burns are all short duration. Bomb kits is 2s, flamethrower 1s.

Nothing major.

Nothing major, but it can be useful depending on your build.  gw2skills shows incendiary powder being a 2s burn.  A 50% duration increase would put that at 3s.  It gets you more burn for less.  Maybe I like shield over pistol, and elixir S over rocket boots.  I would remove much of my burn capability, but I can improve it's duration with this for another tick.

Utility - Elixir U:  5s of Quickness and a random negative attribute.  This skill is great for doing max dps from a safe location.  Do not use this if any of the negative possibilities would hurt more than the buff.

Another case where you don't know the facts, I'm sorry.

Its only 5s if you get frenzy, rest is 4s.

That is crucial.

Hmm, ok.  Going by the tooltips, never really payed close attention to the duration in game.  Will look at it tonight.

· T1 – Deployable Turrets:  This allows you to place your turrets in all kind of strange places.  If you are combining it with “Accelerant-Packed Turrets” you have a ranged KB.  Also if you are trying to keep your turrets alive, you can place them above you (players don’t look up).

Horribly bugged out. Don't use.

Was working when I last played with it.  I'll look at it again tonight.

I would also say the following:

NEVER USE TOOLBELT SKILLS WITH A KIT EQUIPPED

This is a habit engineers need to develop.

Kits currently make you lose weapon stats and sigils.

So for me, when I use grenade barrage with my rifle, I gain: sigil of fire, go for the eyes (yes from grenade barrage), 179 more power, more crit and more crit damage.

It is objectively better.

Its not the case for all, when something like elixir B is involved, since no stats can affect it, but get into the habit.

Excellent point, I will mention this in the gear section once I start on it.

Thank you for all the feedback!  This guide was mostly meant for new engineers, so some of the advanced stuff I simplified.  Yes, i am not super specific about certain things, but it is steadily improving with posts like yours.

Edited by Primalpat, 09 November 2012 - 05:10 PM.

[girigi122]

Never go by the tooltips, and don't take things for granted.

You need to test everything.

Plus, I fail to still see the use for the 20% longer burns.

Burning is already incredibly weak in a group setting, and giving yourself MAYBE one more tick, on longer burns, is not worth it.

If you want more burns, take incendiary powder. If you have crit, then you get 2s of burn, every 4s.

With 20% longer burns, you are competing for other traits remember. If you take a flamethrower, what is better?

20% faster FT cooldowns, or 20% longer 1 second burns?

Answer is clear. The trait needs to be buffed. Same with a lot of traits, like shrapnel for example.

[Primalpat]

Girigi,

I appreciate your feedback, but I do not have the time to test everything.  I am hoping that the community will aid me in the details if I screw something up, like you did (thanks again btw).

The only reason I would take the Napalm trait is if it would push my burns up another tick.  It is up to the player to determine if their methods of applying burns would be bumped up with an additional 20% duration.  What if I want more burns and I dont have 10 points to spare on incendiary powder?

For the FT comparison, it may not help for the 1s burn at the end of flame jet, but it does bump it up a tick for Incendiary Ammo.  Plus you can apply it to a group with flame jet.

My argument isnt that it is a strong trait, but that it CAN be useful depending on your build.  I wouldnt argue a buff to it!  Shrapnel definitely needs a buff, especially when comparing it to the minor trait right below it, Sharpshooter.

[girigi122]

Other things I'd say:

Engineers are the only ones who can't use 'on swap' sigils. Meaning you're stuck to situational stacking sigils, crap buff sigils like 10% more vuln duration, or crit sigils.

Making engineer one of the most crit reliant profs out there.

Bomb elixir support build is the only one I see that doesn't need crits.

Edited by girigi122, 09 November 2012 - 09:22 PM.

[Primalpat]

girigi122, on 09 November 2012 - 09:20 PM, said:

Other things I'd say:

Engineers are the only ones who can't use 'on swap' sigils. Meaning you're stuck to situational stacking sigils, crap buff sigils like 10% more vuln duration, or crit sigils.

Making engineer one of the most crit reliant profs out there.

Bomb elixir support build is the only one I see that doesn't need crits.

Yep another poster mentioned this.  I will definitely cover that in the gear section.


Also, I tested Deployable Turrets and Accelerant Packed Turrets and they both seem to be working fine.  Care to elaborate on what was buggy about them?  Perhaps in my testing i didnt hit the same bugs you did.

Tested Elixir-U, good catch!

Thanks again for Elixir-R.

It also seems Adrenal Implant and Vigor is no longer stacking.  I swear, last time i tested it they were stacking!  It was nuts, lol

[girigi122]

Deploayble turrets in PvE, and in PvP, the healing turret loses the toolbelt portion.

[Felsexual]

I just wanted to point out a error, Mortar has a 1400 range, can be boosted to 1500 with the rifled turret barrel trait and that the elite supplies trait does not actually do anything for the mortar due to a bug. Neither the tooltip nor the tested range change. You also didn't post that the Elite supplies trait does increase the effect for elixir X by adding 3 seconds to tornado and 5 seconds to brute.

[sschrupp]

Excellent guide, PrimalPat. Thank you very much. And kudos to you for putting a positive spin on girigi122's incredibly abrasive and condescending posts.

[Arxae]

Good guide, i have some tidbits to add.

• Ressing with elixir R resses yourself before the finisher animation of the enemy finishes.
  
• Surprise shot can fire even when stunned, ressing, downed, basically anytime except when you are downed.

[Primalpat]

Felsexual, on 11 November 2012 - 07:40 PM, said:

I just wanted to point out a error, Mortar has a 1400 range, can be boosted to 1500 with the rifled turret barrel trait and that the elite supplies trait does not actually do anything for the mortar due to a bug. Neither the tooltip nor the tested range change. You also didn't post that the Elite supplies trait does increase the effect for elixir X by adding 3 seconds to tornado and 5 seconds to brute.

Thank you so much, yeah I tested the mortar before the trait changes and haven't messed with the trait since.  I will certainly fix this section.

sschrupp, on 12 November 2012 - 08:15 PM, said:

Excellent guide, PrimalPat. Thank you very much. And kudos to you for putting a positive spin on girigi122's incredibly abrasive and condescending posts.

Glad it helped!  He was a little condescending but he definitely helped with some facts about skills I haven't tested.  His replies were invaluable!

Arxae, on 14 November 2012 - 07:50 AM, said:

Good guide, i have some tidbits to add.

• Ressing with elixir R resses yourself before the finisher animation of the enemy finishes.
  
• Surprise shot can fire even when stunned, ressing, downed, basically anytime except when you are downed.

I did mention you can rez yourself with elixir-R but I didn't specify it was before they could stomp you.  I will add that for clarity.

I know you can use surprise shot while disabled, but what about other toolbelts?  I will test this when I get home tonight before I mention it in the guide.  Also, another skill you can use while stomping or rezzing is the #5 skill on the flamethrower, which is really awesome imo.

[Arxae]

Righto, forgot about the flamethrower smokescreen.

Maybe another trick, probably super obvious But you can dual interrupt finishers when downed. This saved me a couple of times but needs some timing.

When downed, use the pull skill as late as you can, this will interrupt them. Most of them will try again. By this time the explosion skill should just be off cd. Use it again to interrupt them again.

Small little thing perhaps, but i tend to use it nearly every time i'm down.

[Intoxicated]

Very excellent Guide! I would mention about our downed skills tho as Arxae said, especially to be 'comprehensive'

girigi122, on 09 November 2012 - 01:50 AM, said:

Toolbelt - Toss Elixir:  Gives allies one of the above bonuses randomly.  It doesnt hurt, but isnt superb or anything.
Disagree.

Elixir B is probably the weakest elixir, but its tossed version is amazing because it is so short duration, meaning condition removal and HGH can be used very often.

Elixir B itself is poor. When compared to stimulant from med kit, all it has is: 10s retaliation and 30s of might.

That's all? Retaliation isn't too special, and 30s of might is utterly pathetic. Give me 3 stacks for 10s then we'll talk. Might is not duration effective, its stacks so... how they designed this I don't know.

But again, its quite low duration so for HGH and 409, its good.

NEVER USE TOOLBELT SKILLS WITH A KIT EQUIPPED

This is a habit engineers need to develop.

Kits currently make you lose weapon stats and sigils.

So for me, when I use grenade barrage with my rifle, I gain: sigil of fire, go for the eyes (yes from grenade barrage), 179 more power, more crit and more crit damage.

It is objectively better.

Its not the case for all, when something like elixir B is involved, since no stats can affect it, but get into the habit.

Retaliation not special?! I guess its a matter of opinion but B is one of my favorite Elixers for that reason, also if your running an Alchemy build you shouldn't be using medkit so the fury and swiftness comes in really handy too.

I totally agree with you about the toolbelt skills tho, which is why I'll share a little trick. Bind the toolbelt skills to SHIFT+whatever and bind weapon swap to SHIFT. Pressing 2 keys to use a toolbelt skill may be a pain, but it guarantees you'll swap out of whatever kit your in.

[MrForz]

A slight bump in here because I tend to feel like I'm the only roaming Engineer in a world full of Thieves.