Kogaratsu

Obviously, the following is a very subjective view.

I have a lvl 80 Engi (my only 80, actually, so I play it a lot in dunegons and stuff) and a Mesmer purely for PvP. I do PvP on the Engi as well, I tend to switch around a lot to keep things from getting stale.

First off, Engineer has a few builds that are very good, namely:

• Rifle/Grenade Berserker: a full-on damage build that has great AoE damage through Grenades and great single-target damage through Rifle, as well as access to handy conditions from Grenades (such as Poison and Chill). Negative side: Grenades are spammy, so expect some buttonmashing.
  
• Bomb Kit Tank: a build with high survivability, it uses Shield for CC and Bomb Kit for AoE damage as well as Blindness. The "tankiness" comes more CC and Blind than gear. Designed to control Capture Points in PvP, great build there. Again, bombs are spammy so a lot of button pushing involved.
  
• Flamethrower/Elixir Gun Support Hybrid: my current build for dungeons and general PvE. Nice damage through almost continuous Burning as well as great support due to Weakness application and a Healing field from Elixir Gun. Feels contributing in almost every situation, I'd recommend this build greatly. Also offers a bit more variety in playstyle.

Mesmer builds are very depended on chosen weapon. Most used ones are:

• Staff-Sword/Pistol
  
• Greatsword - Any
  
• Scepter/Torch Confusion

All of these are pretty viable, with Sword/pistol being the base build that seems to be the best in every situation. The other builds are generally used to shake things up. I really like Mesmer for PvP, offers a lot of flexibility.

Bottom line: create one of both and test it out in the Mists. If Grenades, Bomb Kit or Flamethrower don't appeal to you, don't pick Engi, cause Turrets and Gadgets are inferior to those three kits (they're not bad or unfun, but hardly as efficient as those three kits).

This bolg post pretty much confirmed my thoughts: the new Ascended armor will be a must for the Fractal dungeon, but everywhere else it's just a nice bonus (like Exotic is just a nice step-up from Rare).

On the other hand, Ascended is now two steps above Rare. So I really hope the "gear progression" stops here. At this point, I understand their reasoning: Exotics are fairly easy to get (because there are so many ways to get them) while Legendaries are a daunting undertaking. This armor tier is designed to fit in the middle and fits a need. I am disappoi,ted they put in a stat boost on the armor but let's wait and see how this one turns out.

Exoskeleton Kit

Gives Engineer an exoskeleton suit, tranforming him into a melee bruiser. This kit would have the same role as the Greatsword has for Warrior and Guardian: the high-damage/glass cannon melee role. A different possibility is Hammer-like skills, with lots of knockdowns etc., but I feel Engi has enough control elements already. A strong melee option would fill a hole in the current repertoire.

Larsen, on 11 November 2012 - 10:44 AM, said:

This is a highly personal opinion, but:

- grinding my Legendary
- WvW
- sPvP
- Dungeon runs with the guild
- raiding Priests in Orr (which can take a suprising amount of people and coordination - feels very raid-like to me)

are more than enough endgame for me. Of course, if none of the above are things that appeal to you then GW2 has indeed no endgame. But some thing I have seen happen multiple times now in my guild is people burning themselves out on one aspect of the game and then falling in love with another. So far, I'd say ANet did a pretty good job on the endgame front. What's more important is the potential the game has. The November 15th update will be a good measuring stick, to see what endgame additions they will add.

Larsen, on 11 November 2012 - 10:44 AM, said:

I'm only "defending" it because personally I have no problems with the content as-is. That said, more content usually equals more fun, so if you petition for extra content then I'm all for it. I just don't have much problems with teh content as it is. It will keep me interesting long enough for them to come out with an update/expansion.

I'm from Belgium and we pride ourselves on the excellent quality of beers available in our country. Off the top of my head, I could name 5 Belgian beers that are all awesome in their own right.

In addition, while on vacation in the US, I was suprised by the number of excellent local brews available (with some of the most hilarious names ever, like Moose Drool and Flat Tire).

So the beauty of it is: there will always be a "better" beer. Which is a great excuse to keep drinking them