This weekend I decided to focus primarily on the Engineer class. Like last beta weekend, I played almost entirely in structured PvP where the game automatically levels you to 80, gives you a set of gear to customize, and access to every ability. The hope is that I will eventually find the class I will want to level up with this game goes live.
Overall, I love the themeing and gameplay style of the Engineer. In the video above, I was using a Support-heavy build that featured heals, heals, more heals, and a few buffs for good measure. It felt good to support in the scenarios, and enemies had killing me due to all of the escapes and heals I could give myself if necessary.
Though, it was tough to feel appreciated. With the exception being control, I don’t think Guild Wars 2 does a really good job of making cleansing and healing and buffing seem either as noticeable or as effective in other games. Most likely this is due to the (lack of) quality of play on most people’s part and my own ignorance of other classes and how long they should be able to go toe-to-toe with other classes.
(Sorry, it is a boring video. I uploaded the wrong one by accident. I will replace it when I can.)
I also had a chance to make a Flamethrower damage build, which looked cool, but really wasn’t very effective. Sure, I could melt some people if they were standing still, looking the other way, or fighting someone else. Outside of that, it was me who was getting melted (or running away with potion-enhanced speed). I think it could be a fun build though with a little damage increase on the Flamethrower.
I made a few other builds. I had one focused on Bombs, which are incredibly clunky. You place each bomb at your feet, so it is a pseudo-melee build due to the incredibly short range. It was more funny than effective.
Grenades looked cool, but were a pain in the ass to utilize properly. Every grenade has a target reticule (I tried fast casting, but 1 and 2 weren’t working with it on), so you have constantly use it to lead your enemies. The damage for the amount of work really didn’t do anything for me.
I really hated the Engineer’s rifle kit. It just felt clunky and ignored. I understand how you are supposed to use it, but given the real lack of decent ranged options for a class that uses a gun, it just seemed silly.
In the end, I liked the Engineer, but had trouble making it really work. All of the damage builds I tried were weak compared to other classes I played, the tank builds weren’t especially tanking, and the support builds, while strong, just didn’t feel as good as I had hoped. The Engineer definitely needs a little love.
delver 