Core Engineer

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The following build is designed to guide you through your first playthrough, or simply offer you a decent and reliable Core build if you are on Free to Play account. Core builds are not ideal for use later in the game due to the superiority of elite specializations.

Engineer is a versatile Core profession whether that’s dealing damage using your Rifle, weapon kits, and turrets or proving you and your team boons drinking and throwing powerful elixirs.

This build provides good damage, inflicts high amounts of Vulnerability to enemies, and has very high uptime of Vigor and decent Quickness and Fury.

You’ll also have access to a small amounts of Might, Protection, Regeneration, Swiftness, Stability and even Superspeed.

Core Rifle Engineer leads into playing the end-game builds Power Rifle Mechanist and Power Rifle Holosmith.

Power Mechanist

• Low intensity

Damage

Select difficulty

Rifle

Power Holosmith

Damage

Select difficulty

Sword & Pistol
Shield offhand

Build Fundamentals

You’ll be utilizing short cooldown toolbelt skills in combination with the traits Static Discharge and Kinetic Battery to quickly burst down enemies and supply yourself with Quickness and Superspeed. This build has an incredible amount of versatility with utility skills and traits to adapt to every situation.

Your weapon of choice should always be a Rifle, a long-ranged weapon focused on disrupting enemies with knockbacks with Overcharged Shot and locking them in place with Immobilize from Net Shot whilst firing off fast bursts of bullets to quickly dispatch enemies.

Apart from its auto-attack Rifle Burst, your Blunderbuss, and Jump Shot are your high damage skills on your Rifle, and both offer damage increase in form of Might or Vulnerability. For maximum damage, both those skills should be used in close proximity to your target for Blunderbuss to hit the target with all projectiles and Jump Shot to hit your enemy both at launch and at landing.

Jump Shot can also be used defensively to reposition if you’re taking too much damage.

Your other defensive option in this weapon set is Overcharged Shot, which not only will knock the enemy back, but also cleanse Chilled, Crippled, and Immobilize.

The Rifle also offers a small amount of healing due to the last hit of Auto-attack chain being Explosion which triggers Big Boomer.

Grenade & Mortar Kit

This build uses two kits, Grenades and Mortars. Swapping to the Grenade or Mortar kit changes your weapon skills to either mid-ranged thrown explosives in case of Grenade Kit or long-ranged mortar shells with Elite Mortar Kit.

Shrapnel Grenade, Freeze Grenade and Poison Grenade are your most useful skills in this grenade kit thanks to their high damage and synergy with Modified Ammunition. Grenade Kit also gives you the toolbelt skill Grenade Barrage, which is an incredibly strong damage skill.

Elite Mortar Kit offers less damage and is mostly used for the toolbelt skill Orbital Strike. It does, however, have some good utility and further synergy with Modified Ammunition with causes you do deal increased damage to targets the more conditions they have.

Flash Grenade and Flash Shell have a defensive use to mitigate damage from enemies by causing them to be Blinded. Elixir Shell is a niche healing skill that can be used in a pinch to potentially save yourself or your allies, you can double up on the healing effect by using Leap finisher Jump Shot inside the Water field it creates to create healing combo.

Other Utility Skills

Elixir H is an instant cast skill that heals you and provides you with a short duration of Protection, Regeneration, Swiftness and Vigor. Perfect for mitigating further damage. It can be used offensively due to the trait Grenadier which causes you to throw a lesser Grenade Barrage at your target. It also gives you access to Toss Elixir H, a short cast time toolbelt skill that gives you and any allies in the targeted area Protection, Regeneration, and Vigor.

Rifle Turret places a turret that consistently damages enemies in the area and gives you access to the toolbelt skill Surprise Shot, a short cooldown damage skill, perfect for utilising the traits Static Discharge and Kinetic Battery.

Elixir U is a stun-break that can free you from any “hard” Crowd Control effects like Knockback. It also provides you with a short duration of Stability to negate any further incoming Crowd Control.

As an added bonus Elixir U also gives a short duration of Quickness allowing you to retalitate with a quick flurry of damaging skills which can be used offensively if you are certain you won’t need stun-break. It gives you access to the toolbelt skill Toss Elixir U allowing you to stun-break allies and grant them Superspeed it’s an incredibly strong skill when utilited correctly.

Alternatives

Utility Skills

You can replace Elixir H for Healing Turret or A.E.D.. Healing Turret is great for sustained healing yourself and allies. A.E.D. is a great healing skill for mitigating lethal damage and cleansing conditions. It also gives access to the Static Shock toolbelt skill which has great damage, breakbar damage and synergy with Static Discharge and Kinetic Battery.

You can replace Grenade Kit with Bomb Kit if you prefer the playstyle of placing bombs. If you do this you should also change the Grenadier trait in Explosives to Short Fuse.

Traits

If you’re having difficulty surviving perhaps change Explosive Temper in Explosives to Blast Shield.

Crowd Control

• Overcharged Shot
• Net Shot
• Flash Grenade
• Freeze Grenade
• Flash Shell
• Endothermic Shell

Gearing tips

Since this build is designed to be your entry point to Guild Wars 2 world, let’s start with the basics, if you haven’t checked the guides below, give them a read to make yourself familiar with game basics.

Game basics – first steps in Tyria

This short guide contains answers to the questions you might have on the first days of your adventure, such as where to look for tips, how to look for a group (LFG), what are the most important parts of the interface, and more!

Game systems and mechanics

Downstate, dodging, skills tied to weapon types, heart quests, and meta events, it all can be overwhelming for the new player. This guide attempts to answer all your questions, even those you don't yet know you have.

Gearing guide for PvE

This guide aims to teach you about the easiest, fastest, and most importantly, cheapest methods of acquiring your first entry-level equipment for instanced PvE content.

Introduction to the Engineer

This guide will introduce you to the resourceful Engineer profession, its unique "kit" mechanics, utility skills, talents, hidden mechanics, and general gameplay recommendations.

Don’t try to invest in Runes and Sigils before you acquire proper level-80 Exotic gear with Berserker’s stats as transferring upgrades is not possible without destroying the item, and retrieving them during the process has a small chance with most salvage kits.

From drops, crafting and level-up rewards pick items with Power, and on later levels supplemented by Precision and Ferocity.

You can obtain Superior Rune of the Golemancer by completing dungeons and buying them with “tales of dungeon delving” from the dungeon token reward vendor located in Lion’s Arch copied.

Unlocking skills

If you’re looking up this build as you’re leveling through the wide world of Tyria we recommend unlocking Elixir B (leading to Elixir U later) and Grenade Kit.

The first specialization at level 21 should be Explosives as it offers the most useful traits in early levels. At level 45 get Firearms and finally at level 71 unlock Tools.