Guild Wars 2

So I’m pretty new to this game, and am really loving it so far. Having been playing MMO’s since 2003. And this is a really great change to the genre

Now I have been playing an engineer, and really like it. So I was looking into how to get gear, farm materials, crafting, the works. So once I hit 80, I decided to set some goals for myself. I got leather working to 400 and huntsman to 400 so I could get to work on making my own ascended armor and weapon. And spending my accumulated karma on exotic gear.

Then a couple days ago, luck smiles upon me with an ascended weapon box from Teq

Now I have been leveling with a rifle because that is what a lot of guides and leveling builds said was the best vs pistol/shield or pistol/pistol.

But now I have been doing more research on what is the best setup for doing world bosses, fractals, and dungeons. Not raids, don’t have time or a schedule reserved for that. And as it turns out, I can’t find much advice about PvE builds using a rifle. It’s all PvP and WvW with a rifle, which I have little desire to do. It seems to be all about pistol/pistol for condition damage. And I have no problem with that. I love putting burning, bleeding, and poison dots on mobs. But, I don’t have an ascended pistol(s)…

So TL;DR—- Can I do PvE with a rifle? Can I do some small group and zerg PvE content with my new shiny Berzerker rifle? Or did I just literally shoot myself in the foot with the wrong choice?

And if I can do PvE content with a rifle, please give me some tips on a build I can use. Preferably one with SOME survivability. I can’t seem to heal myself for anything… It’s like my healing turret heals me from a different zone instance its that low…

this is an engi build that uses a rifle and is good for fractals:
https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Engineer_-_Power_Bomber

it’s good for open world stuff (used a variant myself). despite it being a power build, it has pretty good survivability too.

Cool ty

Altho I’m not a fan of grenades since there is no auto fire. I guess I’ll get used to pressing 1 repeatedly lol

Buckman.1275:

Cool ty

Altho I’m not a fan of grenades since there is no auto fire. I guess I’ll get used to pressing 1 repeatedly lol

I don’t know that autofire works with any of the kits.

The bomb kit it does, if you are close enough.

Bomb, flamethrower, and toolkit all autoattack. Grenade kit and mortar kit don’t because the 1s are targetted

Please refer to the “DPS Rotation” in build guide posted by nottsgman, it basically explains everything. This build is extremely useful for you, because it’s very simple to play, offers some nice utility (prestacking might, blinding mobs, stacking stealth) and can be very useful in high-level content – fractals and raids.
Both the grenade kit and rifle are there for hard-hitting burst skills, which would be 3+5 for rifle, and 2+4+5+tool belt skill for grenade kit. Neither of these have very strong autoattack, that is why you run bomb kit primarily.

Tarasicodissa.7084:

Please refer to the “DPS Rotation” in build guide posted by nottsgman, it basically explains everything. This build is extremely useful for you, because it’s very simple to play, offers some nice utility (prestacking might, blinding mobs, stacking stealth) and can be very useful in high-level content – fractals and raids.
Both the grenade kit and rifle are there for hard-hitting burst skills, which would be 3+5 for rifle, and 2+4+5+tool belt skill for grenade kit. Neither of these have very strong autoattack, that is why you run bomb kit primarily.

Again ty

But as a newer player, what does 3+5 and 2+4+5 mean? Not used to some of the acronyms and numbers I see players use.

I was merely pointing out the particular skills you’re interested in. E.g.: for rifle, you want to be using the 3rd and 5th skills (Blunderbuss and Jump Shot respectively) when they’re available to you, hence why “3+5”. Other skills are irrelevant for you as they don’t increase your DPS output compared to simple autoattacking (with bomb kit). You’ll only be using them when you need the additional effect, e.g. 4th skill on rifle serves as a CC. The DPS rotation should explain all of this stuff.

Fermi.2409:

Bomb, flamethrower, and toolkit all autoattack. Grenade kit and mortar kit don’t because the 1s are targetted

With Ground Targeting set to Instant and snap targeting enabled you can also hold down 1 for functionally the same thing.