Guild Wars 2

so ive recently got my tag and ive been have loads of fun commanding on but bg fight i always die in seconds no matter what i do i command on my engi because ive been having the most fun commanding with it so i need some ideas to help me and thank you for your help. current build( http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASncoC1ahFYBepC0ehl7ii+0b9aHcBjwAQ8g+hOE-TVTAQBdQJIAMBRiHEAPU9JO6AYwFEAKKxahGCFqGQXUO8FlEQwEzS2fAA-w)

Engineers rely too much on support from other classes to stay alive. Rather than trying to tweak your build, you should just change class if you’re pugmanding.

Easy, log out and roll a G-U-A-R-D-I-A-N. Equip Durability runes and call it a day.

If you are dead set on commanding from an engi, run something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASlUUhSuY9VwdLQ+FLTGl4zUABw4HUBRA9fn37NA-TFTAABacBAUSJ2/7PQyBCoFdEwZihH1f6QJIDHQguUe4xDAAATQBAQA4m38ohUALJ0C-w

Very defensive and very difficult to kill.

As noted above, guardian with durability runes is the best. Though durability runes will turn mostly anything into a brick wall.

As for what you posted, Flamethrower is not that great as the AA is subject to retal, which is most likely why you are dying. Durability runes are the way to go, failing that melandru, but speed runes are really bad because swiftness should not be a problem in zergs. Finally, that random condi damage doesn’t help at all.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASncoC1XhVXBeeB0ehlJjS8ZKgAIc7Smwi+vr79G-TFyHAB9oMI89HaSJoX6AE4CAAwDAYP1f+RpHpA8RqF-w

You have some long invuls as well as a lot of self sustain plus popping the water should help as well. Toss Elixir S is great for breaking target off yourself, and that comes in very handy at times.

i feel tempted to try those runes for my mace shield guard :| expensive????

i bet they will be nerfed once everyone using them..

@Aeolus: The runes cost 150 lumps of Aurilium (the Auric Basin currency) + 2g each, so a full set is 900 lumps and 12g. They plan to make the HoT stuff purchaseable from the notary vendor with the next update though, and they probably won’t nerf them too hard, if at all, because of the amount of people they would kitten off after they spent ages farming PvE.

@OP: I’ve seen people command effectively on engi, but that’s always in small scale. The reason 99.9% of zergs are led by Guardians is it’s the best class to lead on, by far, and rolling a Guardian to command on is the best solution to the problem you’re having. It’s not just that it’s the best class to play, but you’ll be more effective at commanding your melee, 90% of which will be Guardians, because you’ll know which skills are off cooldown and when.

tks for the info, i tough it would be the recipes only added to WvW vendor, and having recipes is the same as zero for me….
Well the nerf would be the proc time would be increased to 30-40 seconds, wich would be more than sufecient for players drop the rune.

note: crafting in gw2 is grindy than asian grindy games where i loved to farm, but ill try to see later what needs to be done in pve :\ i probably dont have that HoT map, since i dropped that campaing.

Aeolus.3615:

i feel tempted to try those runes for my mace shield guard :| expensive????

i bet they will be nerfed once everyone using them..

They probably will. It’s not expensive at all and very easy though it requires some pve; probably a few hours, less if you find an organized group. Use gw2timer and LFG.

I wouldn’t suggest Mace/shield for driving. It has no mobility so you can’t direct the flow of traffic, the most interesting healing is a light field when most decent group healing comes from water fields, and it’s just too slow to keep up in a mobile fight. It just pales in comparison with the GS’s leap finisher, or the hammer’s blast finisher.

Back to OP anyhow, whatever anyone picks I would suggest that someone needs to bring the following if they want to lead:

• Bring Survival. Because you’re useless if dead.
• Stability, stability, stability. You can’t lead if you’re on the floor. Remember that stability stacks based on intensity and not duration so don’t just randomly spam it selfishly. Organize your groups to take this into account.
• Bring mobility. How do you lead if you can’t keep up?
• Bring communication (most likely your server’s voice coms.) How will you lead if nobody knows what you’ll do?
• Bring support. You need to keep the people around you alive. The worst is someone that relies on everyone else to support them and then they scream at their followers for dying even though they’re most likely risking their own lives to make sure the commander stays up (and thus that’s the only reason the commander is staying up!)
• Bring CC. Soft and hard, so you may control where the enemy is, hold them in place, and direct damage to.

It’s not about any one person. You lead and support your group, your group is your ears, eyes, and arms. I say this because I have noted it is very much easier to do anything if you have scouts feeding you info, and a pug blob generally has inferior scouting. I’d place 1 copper as a bet that this is actually giving you the most grief atm. If someone tells you that the enemy is hiding in a corner waiting for you, you have much more time to react and pick good places to fight. If you have no info and the enemy mysteriously materializes on top of you via veil and a surprise, 80% of your puggles will evaporate and no amount of godly skills will save you.

You have to be attentive, but you can’t do it all by yourself. I know a lot of good players that are not good leaders as a result of not understanding this. I’d also say that about myself, but then “good player” doesn’t fit me either. :p

Work together, and make sure you know what how the people around you are doing too. You hold them up, and vice versa. It’s no surprise that guardian fits this role very much. But whatever you build should most likely take this into consideration.

If you are going to pin up and command it has to be either Guardian or Revenant. You need the sustain to be able to live past bombs, statics, pin-snipes, etc etc etc

There have been a few commanders who can drive on silly classes and they have done well, but if you are new to the game or commanding, I highly suggest you stick with what works.

If Durability isn’t possible, Scrapper is a decent alternative rune. Not as group friendly but works for a bunker engi.

Trajan.4953:

If you are going to pin up and command it has to be either Guardian or Revenant. You need the sustain to be able to live past bombs, statics, pin-snipes, etc etc etc

The Engi can Invuln/Block nearly as much as any other class (able to block 33% of a fight, potentially invuln another 7s just shy of a minute). The scrapper line also has some great options for being very durable. The class even comes with a fairly rare water field. The fundamental problem is it isn’t as group friendly. I think it can command but it will rely on other players for most boon buffing.

engi(scrapper) as more “long term” sustain than guardian, guard besides the block and dodge melts much faster, cause it is harder to maintain boons on guard, lesse health etc.

Still, would bet for a warrior for commanding, more sturdier and damage even if on sturdier build.

I am shocked at the advice. Guardian is the best commander??? Please. The best toon for tagging up, is learning to play your toon and drive the zerg. I have followed just about every profession around, I have tagged up with my mesmer, and my ranger and did fine. I have taken keeps, and garrisons with them. I did all that with out team speak.

I have ran with a thief that was a commander, and he was awesome, always drew a big zerg.

Just use what ever toon you feel comfortable with, learn to command by watching others, maybe some youtube videos. In time, people will start to see your tag, and come running.

I found that you don’t really wanna look for fights, people want the loot and they want the tower takes. You will find most know what to do during fights. So if you find the zergs your fighting to be to much, then hit another map, or another area, and start taking stuff. if you find you need to defend, learn to place seige for the best results.

Just find the toon you like to use the most, learn how to use it the best. Its not about what profession your playing, its how you play it. I don’t care how you equip your cartoon, if your run across a huge zerg, your gonna die, WvW is never gonna be a fair fight. If your dying to fast, then learn to back off a bit, and use your range attacks.

I did see someone drive with a daredevil all of sudden when there was no pug tag last week. That was pretty sick, since I didn’t know it was possible. They did very well.

Although I’m curious on why warrior isn’t more popular? They have more mobility and potentially more ability to take more punishment than guardian. Guardian only has 1 invul on a 90s cooldown. (Yea, I know endure pain isn’t actually an invul)

tym.3791:

I am shocked at the advice. Guardian is the best commander??? Please.

Outside of commandering skill and talking about best professions in general, Guardians are nearly a universal commander class. They are one of the most group friendly classes with a legendary amount of survivability. They also have the honor of being relatively untouched since release so much so that FotM builds from release years ago are still solid with a few small adjustments. They don’t even need their elite spec to be awesome in large scale fights. Mix in Durability with Nomads makes them one of the toughest builds to bring down in the game while elevating everyone around them significantly.

I can think of no other profession that even comes close to dominating the front lines like Guardians have. Every other profession might be suitable and even dominant for a time, but Guardians have ruled since pre-release and continue to do so.

Skill is still the deciding factor but a good commander in a less optimal class can be a great commander in an optimal Guardian.

I respect what your saying Straegen, I really do. Your right, for now, Guardian is the flavor of the month, that is until Anet decides to nerf this and buff that. I still disagree. No one toon is better at tagging than the other. Its all about how you play it. My mesmer tagged up can do just as well as any guardian.

If the zerg your running does not have the front line toons like warriors, and what not, one guardian is not gonna make a difference. Play what you know, practice, and don’t worry about what others think. The point is have fun. You enjoy your Engi, then use it, run it, you will do fine.

heres what a friend and i came up with and so far it is working well
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASncTBFYhVXBGpC0ehlJji+vr79Oc7SmwS8ZKgAA-TViHABBfBAO4BAQlOgpMxhy+DAoE8D1fAS5RLKxCAgAQjGAA-w

I don’t really see a point to Elixir H. It doesn’t do anything medic gyro or healing turret does beyond grant 2 stacks of might plus the long cast time.

I would strongly suggest medic gyro. You pulse a water field around you with the toolbelt that will ultimately give more healing especially if you use a leap finisher especially when you factor you’re doing group healing. The actual medic gyro sorta sucks, but it’s also an instant cast heal and you can just let it blow up for a daze.

The other problem I see is that you have no stunbreaks which is not good because you don’t have that much reliable stability. Though keep in mind that using an evade (hammer leap again!) will give you a stack which is enough to move out of whatever.

I would drop Elixir C for something that breaks stun. I mean C sounds nice but in reality even the most terrible of groups should be able to cleanse rather adequately and you have adaptive armor, melandru runes, and most likely some kind of anti-condi food. Remember that practically every class has an easy way to do AOE cleanse, less so for AOE stability, and even less so for AOE stunbreak. Personally, I rarely leave without elxiir gun. The toolbelt breaks stun and also gives aoe regen/condi remove, and acid bomb is very good for repositioning yourself.

Srapper boons need to be boosted they are still weak…
just changed the armor stats… >_>…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASncTBFYhVXBGpC0ehlJjS8ZKgAg+vr79Oc7SmwC-TFBAhATq/MoDYUZAw+DAA-w

Should command on a guard or rev since they’re a useful class. Engi is trash for large scale pvp m8. You’re setting a bad example for your zerg running engi.

ArchonWing.9480:

I would strongly suggest medic gyro. You pulse a water field around you with the toolbelt that will ultimately give more healing especially if you use a leap finisher especially when you factor you’re doing group healing. The actual medic gyro sorta sucks, but it’s also an instant cast heal and you can just let it blow up for a daze.

Yeah that instant cast is a life saver.

Anyway, scrapper can be fun in the frontline and its capable enough of commanding IMO. It doesnt have quite all the meta tools of a guardian, but it has a few other things here and there. The only thing I feel is a missed opportunity is that hammer 3 isnt a faster leap.

Had a rather amusing situation yesterday when our frontline of around 10 peeps I think it was (7 or so guards, including the commander) had to push out south bay against 40 or so enemies while the backline fired from the walls. I tried to be on the commander like glue and after 3 quick pushes we where down to 2 peeps – the guardian commander and me on a cleric scrapper, lol (yeah you read that right, kittening cleric with kittening water runes). We did push again, 2v35ish now because kitten it. And both survived because finally another guild came and flanked them, haha.

/facepalm.

There are no decent drivers on Engi above a K-Train that fights doors all day. If you are PvD-ing then go ahead and play a bear/bow ranger.

Seriously guys, stop giving bad advice to a new commander because you have some cheese build that works for you. He is new and asking for help and you are setting him up for failure.

wear full nomads.

Trajan.4953:

/facepalm.

There are no decent drivers on Engi above a K-Train that fights doors all day. If you are PvD-ing then go ahead and play a bear/bow ranger.

Seriously guys, stop giving bad advice to a new commander because you have some cheese build that works for you. He is new and asking for help and you are setting him up for failure.

And there never will be with that attitude.

You know what class I remember the most as one of the best pug commanders in all 4 years of GW2?

A thief.

A silly freaking thief.

No one remembers a guardian because they are all guardians today.

tym.3791:

Guardian is the flavor of the month

No it’s not. It’s been the staple for the past 4 years. The reason is because pushes and regroups are based around “Empower” and “Stand Your Ground”. You can’t make pushes without Might and Stability. Having a timer on these skills is the most important thing when you’re driving. There’s just no way you can make an effective push without those boons. Either you’re hitting like a wet noodle without 25 might stacks, or you’re going to get CC’d before you even reach your opponents and die.

If you have similar cooldowns to those skills or have an internal timer for those skills (or have someone calling those cooldowns out), then yes, you can command on other classes, but it’s just so much easier to just do it on a guardian.

If it comes to pin sniping your class is irrelevant, moa is moa.
My personal experience is to play warr or guard, not super tanky, the normal guild build.
Why?
I am, esppecially on warrior, too often out of Position if i run tank.
I think there are few things that ruin your ability to “feel” the fight more than running another build as your frontline does. No one is helped if you press IP and block and bumrush into battle. I had this discussion with another commander insisting it would be best for the nomad guard commander to ji into the enemy popping shield 5. well didn’t work out do good.
My approach (as i have effect lod enabled) is to put my toe into the dmg pool (in choke fights that is), if its hot i will know it and safe my zerg the hustle of WP back because “commander decided to go ham” and adjust the push accordingly.

About rev as commander:
Hammer 3 will kill your pugs, many frontliners will push because reasons
If your grp stabil fails, good luck
But again it can work.
I think the biggest + for heavy armour classes as commander is that your survival skills and there for your movement don’t rely on teleports. Your zerg will find it easier to follow you if your movements arent all over the place, remember the first to get disoriented are New players or people not in TS. You should never underestimate how big a difference it makes, and you should not simply disregard them either as they are on the map and in your zerg, if you want it or not, you need “Them”
Long story short:
-if some one wants to pin snipe you they will
-if you run tank you risk a disconnect with your trusty zerglings
-if you run the same builds as your zerg, adjust behavior
-NEVER be “the guy” rushing in with survival skills shouting: my scrapper made it why cant you, no one pushed with me, o ma gawwwd naaaasps #ragequit
-pushing behavior changes once people See and know they can trust you

This is what I run when commanding as Scrapper, adjusting the rings/Earrings with either Cav or Zerk depending on how much pressure I’m getting.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASncoCFpi1XBGYBEqilJjKc7Smwieuz7+W8ZKgAA-TVCBABYp0g/9H8SJWmq/AwFAQLlB6pjINlgM8AACAgA4oH9oH9oHtbezjezjmUAZO0C-w

I’ll leave this here as well incase you want to see it in action. (please note this is not my PoV, I am the commander) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRjb1XzMlh4

CowOfGlory.5816:

This is what I run when commanding as Scrapper, adjusting the rings/Earrings with either Cav or Zerk depending on how much pressure I’m getting.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASncoCFpi1XBGYBEqilJjKc7Smwieuz7+W8ZKgAA-TVCBABYp0g/9H8SJWmq/AwFAQLlB6pjINlgM8AACAgA4oH9oH9oHtbezjezjmUAZO0C-w

I’ll leave this here as well incase you want to see it in action. (please note this is not my PoV, I am the commander) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRjb1XzMlh4

And you do a good job of it Cow!!! You’re not a runner like some of the others, you dive right in.

Trajan.4953:

/facepalm.

There are no decent drivers on Engi above a K-Train that fights doors all day. If you are PvD-ing then go ahead and play a bear/bow ranger.

Seriously guys, stop giving bad advice to a new commander because you have some cheese build that works for you. He is new and asking for help and you are setting him up for failure.

Any class can be used well as commander, if the player knows what to do, still guardian. rev, warrior is just more easy to do with these classes.

Btw saddly WvW as tuned to a pvd game long time ago…

Silberfederling.9302:

-NEVER be “the guy” rushing in with survival skills shouting: my scrapper made it why cant you, no one pushed with me, o ma gawwwd naaaasps #ragequit

Yeaaaaaaaaaaa, that took a while to realize. And that was because I was an idiot that didn’t realize 20v20 isn’t 20 seperate 1v1s or a 1v20 with 19 helpers where you take out your kitten and measure how many people you downed. “I downed 3 people and killed 2” while ignoring zerg wipes “but my K:DR so good that I need 5 minutes to myself”

It’s just stupid because people are generally focusing their boons, cleanses and heals…. on the commander. Anyone can pop their invuls, wade a bit, and come back out. But without a purpose that’s just trolling the frontline that’s keeping you alive.

There’s nothing like a commander boasting about that when the frontline has been spending 70% of the fight putting themselves at risk and inevitably going down before the commander because the com should get priority and gets mocked as a result. This is a good way to see your frontline decrease in numbers over the night. I mean, hey, I can f3 renewed focus f1 f2 f3, and be like YO IM OUT OF POSITION BETTER USE SYG WHEN IM ALL ALONE LIEK A SELFISH JERK OH NO THE ZERG IS WIPING IMA GS3 OUT HERE AND /LAUGH /LAUGH Y CANT U SCRUBS STAY ALIVE. But if you want to win the big fight, you can’t just think about yourself— you can’t just optimize personal dps and survivability.

Almost is as kittenomeone that spams mobility skills and wonders why they’re alone. But point is, don’t take your followers for granted.

Just found this one :} , you guys are in need of a good laught.

Lol, great video. That pretty much describes what I was.