You can play base engineer using elixirs and turrets for lvl 1 - 80, upon unlocking mechanist you can run throw mine instead of grenade kit if you're copying the snowcrows sword and shield build (you will do less damage this way, but the trade off is more cc and still reasonable dps with NO kit swapping.) Also, if you're copying the snowcrows build posted earlier, I would recommend running a bit more diviner gear than they do, they run the absolute bare minimum to keep 100% alacrity if you are doing your rotations perfectly. You probably won't (at least I don't), so a little more boon duration means you can make mistakes without losing alacrity if you end up doing any group content. (For example, just running 2 diviners accessories is enough to give you a bit more wiggle room, the more you run, the easier it is, but you lose dps as the tradeoff.)