New player, could use some insight on engineer builds

[Lynx.9058]

Been playing about a week now, Charr engineer is what I picked as my main. I've played a lot of MMO's and the lingo is totally different here in guild wars so i'm getting used to all the terms still, but I think I've got the basics.

My character is level 21 right now, just finished the second part of the personal story, but compared to the plains of ashford I'm definitely running into more issues with enemy toughness in diesa plateau, even though I outlevel most of them. Currently I'm running a dual pistol/rifle, though I'm not fond of the engineer's rifle skills TBH. I make pretty frequent use of flamethrower, probably using that more often than my pistols, and generally have medkit/rifle turret/flame turret as my other utility skills currently. I plan on going with the scrapper elite spec later on, no real interest in holosmith (at least not for this character, maybe if I ever do an asura engineer).

So, I'm looking for build tips as well as any tips that might help with dealing with those tougher enemies. I did an event in diesa last night where I was escorting a charr guy setting up a couple of ghost machines, and the final boss mob that spawned was wrecking me. I was getting knocked back/down almost constantly, doing very little damage to him, and struggling to keep myself alive. My turrets ended up doing most of the damage to him while I was knocked down/disabled. TBH that was pretty frustrating not having much control over my character for the majority of the encounter.

I figure with the dual pistol and flamethrower setup, condition damage is probably what I want to focus on (between the two I've got bleed, poison, and burning all ticking, though I dont swap back and forth between them as often as I should I'm sure), so I've started to gear more into that when I have the opportunity to pick loot. That said, I heard someone talking about a power-scrapper build that utilized the flamethrower, which is confusing since I thought the flamethrower would've been condition damage since it applies burning. Also, I plan to drop the rifle for the hammer once I get scrapper unlocked, but I'm not sure whether the scrapper/hammer abilities are considered condition or power damage.

Lastly, I try to make frequent use of the pistol lightning shot, flamethrower turret overload (smoke screen), and the flamethrower smoke blast to mitigate the damage I'm taking, but honestly it doesnt seem like that blind effect is actually doing anything. I still get hit regardless; how exactly do those effects function? Is there anything else I can do to be less 'squishy'?

[Dawdler.8521]

@Lynx.9058 said:I figure with the dual pistol and flamethrower setup, condition damage is probably what I want to focusYes, the most common mistake. No you dont because the flamethrower is a power weapon.

Anyway, at low levels it doesnt really matter what you do. The engineer is pretty underwhelming and weak when leveling IMO. Just have to bear with it. There are some things you can do in order to get less squishy, such as speccing alchemy if you havent done so already, and be sure to get full green sets of gear via the TP as soon as you are within their level brackets. That gear usually last ~10 levels and then you replace everything again. Each piece only cost a couple of silver and should be a good boost to your stats at the early bracket. You'll want to start doing that at level 26 or 27 or whatever it is (earlier gear is price gauged as hell). If power is cheap, get power. If condi is cheap, get condi.

[ShadowCatz.8437]

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@Lynx.9058 said:I figure with the dual pistol and flamethrower setup, condition damage is probably what I want to focusYes, the most common mistake. No you dont because the flamethrower is a power weapon.

Anyway, at low levels it doesnt really matter what you do. The engineer is pretty underwhelming and weak when leveling IMO. Just have to bear with it. There are some things you can do in order to get less squishy, such as speccing alchemy if you havent done so already, and be sure to get full green sets of gear via the TP as soon as you are within their level brackets. That gear usually last ~10 levels and then you replace everything again. Each piece only cost a couple of silver and should be a good boost to your stats at the early bracket. You'll want to start doing that at level 26 or 27 or whatever it is (earlier gear is price gauged as hell). If power is cheap, get power. If condi is cheap, get condi.

Directed to: @Lynx.9058You can also buy gear for Karma if you more of it then Gold (or Silver by this stage if this your very first character). You get most Karma during doing Hearts on Tyria and from events. Just be aware that you can not salvage those to get mats in return when you want to upgrade to next level.

If you play WvW then you might have Badge of Battle (token): https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Badge_of_Honor#Equipment

Be careful that you don't use up one currency if you plan to use it later. Karma is used to get some ingredients that you can't buy on TP and which you might need if you plan on levelling up crafting food. You can search on wiki that I linked for Karma and see what it is used for and which vendor that sell gear (most are in Orr).

[Dawdler.8521]

@ShadowCatz.8437 said:Be careful that you don't use up one currency if you plan to use it later. Karma is used to get some ingredients that you can't buy on TP and which you might need if you plan on levelling up crafting food. You can search on wiki that I linked for Karma and see what it is used for and which vendor that sell gear (most are in Orr).

He'll be drowning in millions of karma soon enough.

[ShadowCatz.8437]

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@ShadowCatz.8437 said:Be careful that you don't use up one currency if you plan to use it later. Karma is used to get some ingredients that you can't buy on TP and which you might need if you plan on levelling up crafting food. You can search on wiki that I linked for Karma and see what it is used for and which vendor that sell gear (most are in Orr).

He'll be drowning in millions of karma soon enough.

I had 1 mil Karma, but that went away when I started to do map completion and collected skin I had never bought before. Combine that with the hew Enhanced Gathering Tools, then you will have not enough gain from Karma to compensate for the cost of Gathering tools (and portal scroll).

Anyway I gave OP an option to use whatever currency/token, but also to remember that Karma do have uses outside of buying gear and that gear bought with Karma can not be salvage for mats to later sell or use. Neither any upgrades like sigils or runes.

[serialkicker.5274]

Few tips I'd give you:Always choose gear with power as major stat. The rest is not important. If it has vitality or toughness, it doesn't hurt, but precision and ferocity is not really important until you are level 80, since you will rarely crit as low level. Other stats are useless for low level.Flamethrower is power based weapon (strangely, yes).Rifle is mostly an utility weapon, not great for clearing mobs, since it lacks good, reliable AoE on low CD.Upgrade your gear at least every 5 levels (blue quality unless you get higher quality by drops).Grenade kit and flamer should carry you to lvl 80 without issues.

Good luck! Feel free to add me in game if you have questions.

[Lynx.9058]

I've tried using grenade kit but honestly not having an autoattack and having to manually target every throw makes it feel pretty weak. Is there something I'm missing about it? Also, I see a lot of videos where people are using the Elixir gun, but I haven't found it particularly useful so far. What's the deal there?

[AliamRationem.5172]

@Lynx.9058 said:I've tried using grenade kit but honestly not having an autoattack and having to manually target every throw makes it feel pretty weak. Is there something I'm missing about it? Also, I see a lot of videos where people are using the Elixir gun, but I haven't found it particularly useful so far. What's the deal there?

Have you tried turning off the ground-targeting and just having it throw to wherever your cursor is located? There is a setting for that. Might make it easier.

[Lynx.9058]

I'll try that, didnt know there was an option for it in settings.

[Tiilimon.6094]

Use the targeting scheme that prepares the cast when you hold and casts when you let go, get used to it and you'll find that its the quickest way to drop aoe fields right where you want em.

Check out the trait Purity of Purpose and elixir gun will start looking like something that you cant live without. Medkit, cleanse gyro and egun make you the best cleanse class in the game.

[ZeroSkitzo.5403]

@Lynx.9058 said:I'll try that, didnt know there was an option for it in settings.

To be clear, it’s instant cast so feels more fluid but since you lose the green target, most other professions and people usually use fast with ground targeting (I think that’s its name, it’s the middle of the three options)

[thehipone.6812]

A bit out of the box - try tool kit and run Tools as your initial specialization. In tool kit, the wrench and pry bar are a bit slow, but they hit hard. You get gear shield for a long duration block, 2 seconds on a 13 second cooldown if you take the power wrench trait. The permanent swiftness with kit refinement will go a long way towards speeding things up until you get the raptor. When combined with the cripple from the wrench autos you can kite as needed if things get hairy. But they shouldn't, because with easy access to vigor (which also gives 10% dmg boost with minor trait) and adrenal implant you get dodges for days. Or you can take AED and just facetank stuff, relying on the "on death" AED trigger to heal you up and give you a second life.

When leveling characters I like to use stuff that is underutilized at level 80, just for the fun factor. Getting to prybar things in the face every 10 seconds is my kind of fun.

[DeanBB.4268]

Flamethrower is fun once you get the traits to support it. Firearms has a trait that gives constant Might and Stability, and Alchemy health gain. You can finish Core with flamethrower and turrets.

[TheAgedGnome.7520]

@Lynx.9058 said:My character is level 21 right now......I plan on going with the scrapper elite spec later on

All I can say is that Scrapper is awesome, and to not let core Engineer weakness dissuade you from reaching 80!