Level 12 or so, am I supposed to feel weak?

[Tessedan]

I'm an engineer, if I fight more than 1 enemy at a time I'll have a hard time. Am I doing something wrong? I have the gear from those boxes and rolled the stats on them. I've died a few times but idk if I'm under-geared or something.

[TheInsanityDiver]

Engineer is a hard class to play keep a eye out for extra hero points and gear on your level is super important

[Nibbie]

What level enemies are you fighting? Are they part of an event, especially a "group event"? Obviously anything higher than you will be hard, and group events in particular are meant to be done with more than one person.

This is also an action combat game, unlike many other MMOs; you don't stand there and trade hits, you want to move around to avoid taking damage, and use your roll's iframes to avoid big or hard to dodge hits. You are early enough that you don't have a build yet, or enough stats to specialize into anything, so its probably just your general play pattern in combat that is causing your issues.

You may want to look into different weapons you can use as well; you can see the weapons you can equip and the skills they provide in your build tab. Some weapons are definitely harder to use than others, and/or better for general content versus harder instanced content. I would recommend Rifle engi, it's pretty good, and having that long range can let you kite away from those groups of enemies you are struggling with.

[Teratus]

A good tip to do early is to customise your keybinds.
That alone can significantly decrease how difficult some classes are to play, especially ones like Engineer, Mesmer and Elementalist that rely a lot on regular use of their F skills.

You'll be using Dodge a lot as well so it's good to have that bound to something you find extremely easy to access, ideally something effortless.
I personally like to have dodge on my mouse (clicking my mouse wheel specifically) so I can keep my left had dedicated to skill press and movement.
I found that to be extremely helpful over the years, but you do whatever keybinds you feel work for you.

You can also bind using SHIFT and CTRL as well which adds tons more variety and easy access to many abilities without complicating your hand movements.

For example one of my mouse thumb buttons is assigned to F1 while the same button when holding SHIFT is assigned to F3.
I also have F2 bound to E.
Since I play Ranger a lot this allows me to order my pet to attack and to call it back using the same button, depending on whether SHIFT is pressed or not.
And I can also use my pet's beast ability very very easily as it's right next to WASD.

I find this also very convenient for Engineer and Elementalist as well.
Fire and Air are the two most common elements I use on Elementalist so this setup easily lets my access them regularly from the same button press.

As for Engineer i've got a really nice setup for playing that.
F1 on my mouse which is a toolbelt healing skill.
Since I can chose the order of toolbelt skills based on which Utility skill is in which slot it means I can have the most regularly used tool skills on F2 (E) and F3 (Shift mouse)

Just to clarify my F4 is Shift R and F5 is Shift E as well so those skills are also extremely easy to access in the heat of battle.

Changing my keybinds like this made a huge difference for me when playing classes with a lot of regular F skill use.
But again, it's entirely upto you what you want your keybinds to be, set them to whatever is the most comfortable for you to play with.
Once you have something that works for you it really will make a huge difference.

[LSD]

Core Engi without being specced (which you won't actually get until level 71) is absolute garbage. It's why it's listed as "hard" on the character creation screen. The level system just doesn't work -- it was changed a year or so after the game released, and became this awful mess where you don't unlock skill/weapon/spec slots until you hit certain levels.

The flamethrower kit is still pretty strong. Take gear with power when you get it as a reward and fight with the flamethrower. Rifle got some big buffs over the years too, so that's probably strong for levelling.

[ah_puch]

You can buy level skips and skill points OP, also need to purchase expansions for stronger engineer specs. Sad but you can't do much without paying. Good luck!

[Koytar]

As core engineer, you should try to pick off fights on distance before the enemies close in so you have better chance to survive. Not to mention this class has access to a lot of combo field that can help you out in the fight in many ways.

Combo field is 2 elements going together to create an effect: offensive, supportive, healing.

Like blast + water healing you up (and giving you regeneration boon although don't quote me on that).

Edit | Also, turrets can also be used in a way to grab the attention off you if you don't attack first. If you level up more you'll have "toolbet" skills that can also be used depending on the right side skills you picked, including the elite. |

I can give you a leveling build that could minimize the chances to die to 2 and plus enemies. And make you a tougher to take down.

[SinisterSlay]

Back in my early days I found engineer with twin pistols and turrets was a solid solo build for a good chunk of the game even into HoT. Your not doing big damage but your survivability goes way up. And I feel when you are a beginner, that is more important.

[Etraux]

Originally posted by LSD:

Core Engi without being specced (which you won't actually get until level 71) is absolute garbage. It's why it's listed as "hard" on the character creation screen. The level system just doesn't work -- it was changed a year or so after the game released, and became this awful mess where you don't unlock skill/weapon/spec slots until you hit certain levels.

The flamethrower kit is still pretty strong. Take gear with power when you get it as a reward and fight with the flamethrower. Rifle got some big buffs over the years too, so that's probably strong for levelling.

Originally posted by ah_puch:

You can buy level skips and skill points OP, also need to purchase expansions for stronger engineer specs. Sad but you can't do much without paying. Good luck!

If anyone needed proof that these two have no idea about the game - there you go

[xxdovaxx1]

Originally posted by Tessedan:

I'm an engineer, if I fight more than 1 enemy at a time I'll have a hard time. Am I doing something wrong? I have the gear from those boxes and rolled the stats on them. I've died a few times but idk if I'm under-geared or something.

rules for engi for lvling

dont try to use your basic weapons they are all weak, try to use your "kits" skill weapons like flame thrower

try tower they are a good way for everything while u lvl up

the (core-basic) engi is not a fighter he is a builder he have a realy weak weapon kit but with tools u can rule the fight there is a lot of options how u can get better if u want i can show u a lot ingame to be better and stronger, give me a add if u want some advice

[LSD]

Originally posted by Kabbs:

Originally posted by LSD:

Core Engi without being specced (which you won't actually get until level 71) is absolute garbage. It's why it's listed as "hard" on the character creation screen. The level system just doesn't work -- it was changed a year or so after the game released, and became this awful mess where you don't unlock skill/weapon/spec slots until you hit certain levels.

The flamethrower kit is still pretty strong. Take gear with power when you get it as a reward and fight with the flamethrower. Rifle got some big buffs over the years too, so that's probably strong for levelling.

Originally posted by ah_puch:

You can buy level skips and skill points OP, also need to purchase expansions for stronger engineer specs. Sad but you can't do much without paying. Good luck!

If anyone needed proof that these two have no idea about the game - there you go

You're literally the only guy in here claiming otherwise. Nice one.

[Etraux]

Originally posted by LSD:

Originally posted by Kabbs:

If anyone needed proof that these two have no idea about the game - there you go

You're literally the only guy in here claiming otherwise. Nice one.

Power gear with flamethrower? I'm sorry, but you know nothing about the game.

[Totally Innocent Chatbot]

Originally posted by LSD:

Originally posted by Kabbs:

If anyone needed proof that these two have no idea about the game - there you go

You're literally the only guy in here claiming otherwise. Nice one.

Because the rest of us have learned their lesson and stopped engaging with you and the other trolls. Can't win an argument against people this detached from reality, best to just block them and let them scream unheard into the ether.

[𝒞𝒶𝓉𝓎𝒶♡]

Originally posted by Totally Innocent Chatbot:

Originally posted by LSD:

You're literally the only guy in here claiming otherwise. Nice one.

Because the rest of us have learned their lesson and stopped engaging with you and the other trolls. Can't win an argument against people this detached from reality, best to just block them and let them scream unheard into the ether.

This tbh.

@OP :

And there are a few here telling it's quite doable. Core Engi (at low level, like anything, for a new player learning the combat and limits of each profession and how (and what) much to pull alone, i see people having troubles with the first Veteran Boars they meet, pretty much with any class. Initiation rituals of GW2 sort of. Learning lessons. :)

Core Engi at start is a bit same as Core Elementalist, not the most easy spec to start with perhaps, but.. when you put some time in it, learn, level up, get key skills/passive traits. It becomes enjoyable.

Yes, there are professions that are more "new player friendly", like Ranger and Necromancer. Ranger has instantly a pet that takes often aggro like a mini-tank and you just pew pew all enemies, Necro can have same with minion master type of setups. And it's tanky as hell anyways for solo open world play even without minions, for Shroud being an extra hp bar with extra mitigation. And the tool set it has..

With all that said, Core Engineer CAN be quite doable and FUN to play the game through, even as 1st character. You'll get the flow of it after a bit, level 18 is still early levels, it changes a lot, you will literally get fun and efficient "toys" to play with and can be also REALLY tanky as a solo player also, doing all world content and story etc without problems.

Get all the hero points to unlock all the things while at when see them, you'll be fine. Personally i used Pistols while leveling up, it was fun and smooth. My build i went with sort of what looked and felt cool, i mean.. went with "Mandalorian Bountyhunter" type of vibes, everything was doable and fun. If there is big cluster of mobs, use CC (cripples etc) and kill most from range before they even can reach you, if there are heavy ranged hitters, burst those out first. You'll learn, it becomes automatic after a bit. :) Core Engineer is very much doable and fun even the whole story if wants, even all expansions. But of course most will want to have all build options eventually. And Engineer has some fun elite specs to try out, one being Mechanist that has a personal mech "mini-tank" that actually has decent dmg in itself when positioned right, so no more need to be jealous for Rangers pets. :P

Have fun and welcome to GW2! ^^

Playing Core Engineer is like some real life things, it hurts when you start, but then starts to feel good after a bit. Or so i've heard. Don't know about such things, because all i do is play mmo games, own a Paradox game with ALL of it's DLC (Stellaris), so it's quite safe to assume, and rightfully so, that i do not have any kind of relationship irl. :P

[ah_puch]

If anyone needed proof that these two have no idea about the game - there you go

Lol did you just deny level booster and hero points being in the store? You do realize a lvl 12 player can buy the p2w items and be maxxed out without playing the game right?

[Tessedan]

Thanks for all the help guys, I'll try out what you guys said. And other classes too haha.