Guild Wars 2

This is the build I’m running as a solo roamer in WvW currently.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEUQJAoYhMM6c2zwuBdEBCRRKYCjCdg4xDYBcYpQOA-zECBYfBMzcIr5mRssqIas6aYKXJV7CQ/KyAA-w

I’m very satisfied with it. I have enough options to either lock people down or get out of setup situations to take basically anybody 1v1, and get away with 1vX against bad players, which is really all I’m looking for. Eats thieves alive.

But I can’t do anything to condition engineers. Its my achilles heel, my kryptonite, whatever. I run into one and its kind of like I never had a chance. They have too many lockdowns for me to handle, too much bunker capacity for me to burst, and too many conditions for me to survive. It doesn’t really matter if I can evade all the right skills, because all of those passive on-crit conditions will just jump onto me the next damage tick. If I slot cleansing fire I can handle some of them, but the good ones are still eating me alive and it really weakens me against other classes.

So I’m asking for some help with the build/gameplay tips in general for dealing with condition bunker engineers. How do I even handle them?

Laugh at them?

First of all, props for being successful with another build that is not 0/0/0/30/30; specially with d/d. The problem many player have is that they believe a single build/weapon set can defeat all the others. That does not exist in guild wars 2. There will always be at least one build and /or profession that counter yours. As far as recommendation goes if you want to defeat engies with the same build you have, try focus off hand and they will become the easiest opponent for you but then you will have another Achilles.

When they throw down elite just run. They will either chase you or be a typical engi and hide in his turrets. Keep the fight away from that. Learn what animations are interrupts and keep in mind his poison fields. My trick is strafing behind them constantly and utilizing my mid tange auto attacks. Your build is pretty hit or miss. Ive tried a similar build. It was fun but only in 1v1 which is not suitable for any game mode unless dueling or killing up levels is your thing.

I main Elementalist most people on this forum know. I have been playing Engi for about 2 weeks now it’s alot of fun easily is my second favorite class now.

I can tell you how the normal condition build works and maybe that will help you.

20/10/0/20/10 is the standard base build. 10-20 points can be moved around.

The duration on engineers conditions actually arent very long most of the damage is from burns. Grenade Kit can stack bleeds, bomb engis can’t stack bleeds. Elixir Gun (utility skill) auto attack can stack bleeds but alot of Engi’s prefer rocket boots over Elixir gun.

The thing with both of those kits is that burning is probably the main source of damage. I also have a necro at 80 and the first thing that struck me about Engineer is the lack of reliably stacking bleeds unless you go nades. Burning makes up a large part of a condition engineers damage. So when you have burning on you clear it asap to kill a big chunk of its condition damage.

It isn’t very sturdy and is weak against conditions itself. Usually max 1 stun breaker. If you see a engineer with rocket boots then he almost definitely doesn’t have a stun breaker. If he has a elixir gun then he has 1 stun breaker. Grenades or bombs at max have just 1 stun breaker.

Patience is how you play against the engineer. Bombs or Nades the important attack to avoid is magnet with prybar follow up. Poison volley isn’t as important to avoid static shot is more deadly. Usually poison volley is used to bait the dodge to land static shot if you asked a engi if they had to chose which to land most will tell you static > poison volley.

Keys against Engi:

• 1 stun breaker maximum
• Majority of the dps is burns especially if it is a bomb engi
• Pistol condition durations are short bleed is 2 secs base
• If a grenade engineer stacks you with 10+ bleeds then you got hit with everything you should have avoided.
• avoid magnet pull
• avoid prybar
• engi has either half or as much vigor uptime as ele. vigor uptime is tied to swiftness not crit like ele. Engi’s vigor is receive swiftness = gain vigor 5 sec icd. for 100% vigor uptime engi needs 2 traits 1 in firearms 1 in alchemy not common they take both traits but possible.

Just play with patience and let the engi blow his load keep your condition load low remove burning then attack the engi.

With your particular build you need to avoid the opening then blow the engi up asap. A standard D/D build will be able to handle the conditions much better but your build needs to kill it asap. A bomb engi lives and dies off of people being over agressive and fighting in the bomb radius especially the fire bomb and confusion bomb.

You have to determine if it is a nade or bomb engi some run both but that means there defense is really low with no toolkit meaning no magnet, no block, no prybar.

A engineer as soon as they are stun will almost always always swap to toolkit to block without fail if they don’t have a stun breaker. That’s why you want to keep using your cc’s on the engi as much as possible.

I would say that Nade engi’s don’t like when people are close to them and that might be the case but some engi’s are really good at shotgunning there grenades on top of them.

There is a HGH build but it is rare it has P/P and nades with elixirs. The same thing will apply here with 1 stun breaker but will have 1 stability source. Elixir H, S, probably B. Every utility skill gives a toolbelt skill. The Elixir stealth is on about a 57 second cooldown and elixir S(when engi goes small) is also about 60 seconds. Those 2 skills are connected because they are both elixir S.

If you see a engi popping elixir alot he is stacking might with HGH trait it’s a mistake imo he will have alot of condi damage but is using up valuable defense and offense skills for higher condition damage. The elixirs are on 25+ second cooldowns. If the engi pops the elixir stealth at the beginning of a fight(throws it on the ground and disappears) Pressure heavy as soon as he appears. He will pop the other elixir S(goes small) to regroup after that he is fair game to damage and you should blow him up.

Elixir builds are rare with bombs and usually are used with nades I would say about 90% of the time.

I only been playing Engi for 2 weeks but I do my homework whenever I level a class to 80 and study alot of threads and videos and build guides.

The big difference between a Condi engi and a Necro for example is that the engi condition durations are really short. People think they are long because each grenade applies the condition so if you get hit with 3 nades you get that stack or intensity times 3 with grenadier trait and if your close enough. I have 70% duration on my Engi and the chill nade(the one people hate the most) is 2 grenades 3.5 seconds a piece when you take the grenadier trait(so you can throw them 1500 range) you get 1 extra nade. If I took that trait then it would be 3 nades at 3.8 seconds a piece.

The grenades are deadlier upclose but it isn’t easy hitting nades up close. Bomb engi’s condis are much shorter then a nade engi unless you like fighting inside his fire bomb.

Both nade and bomb engi condi builds main source of damage is burning.

Nade engis can be power also because they have good direct damage on nades(not great but decent at 1k+ on crit with enough crit damage). Why engi is a good class to use celestial gear on like elementalist because it uses everything. It gets more mileage out of the condition damage from celestial then a Ele does but less mileage out of healing power.

Hope this little mini engi info helps out. Not every fight will go as I laid it out but the options for a heavily CC’d engi are really low so the follow ups I wrote about are likely to occur. Knowing how a build works I find really helps to fight it.

You’ve found the problem.

As mentioned you’re a kill or be killed build.

I ran that too and yes, I had more success against some thieves, but conditions will take full advantage of how low your hps are and how low your heals are. Unfortunately for all the advice given by everyone, it’s so easy to reapply conditions, as you cleanse them you just spend time clearing and not doing damage.

Sadly all he has to do is avoid you whilst his condis tick, that tied into the fact he will have high tough and high health due to condi armour sets.

You could try 0,20,30,10,10

You get diamond skin then, but the drop in crit damage and no fresh air. But it really helps against condi spammers.

Interesting build. Not something i would use as a DnD ele but nonetheless its a unique build.

Any ranged class becomes a joke with focus off hand. You are pretty much immune to their damage 33% of the time out of a minute (swirling winds and magnetic aura, both with 25-30s cd iirc), or 18 seconds out of 60. Pretty massive imo and I don’t think engis equip bomb kit in wvw like they do in spvp too, because that’s their usual counter strat for focus offhand (I don’t wvw that much).

Magnetic aura or wave allows for some very funny plays. Nothing more satisfying than watching a brainless warrior pindown himself.

Razor.6392:

Any ranged class becomes a joke with focus off hand. You are pretty much immune to their damage 33% of the time out of a minute (swirling winds and magnetic aura, both with 25-30s cd iirc), or 18 seconds out of 60. Pretty massive imo and I don’t think engis equip bomb kit in wvw like they do in spvp too, because that’s their usual counter strat for focus offhand (I don’t wvw that much).

Magnetic aura or wave allows for some very funny plays. Nothing more satisfying than watching a brainless warrior pindown himself.

Actually bombs are used in WvW. Many of the “known” engineer’s like teldo, wolfineer, koroshi use bombs in WvW. It was the build that I described give or take those 20 points moving around. I personally like bombs alot more so then grenades but I only been playing engi for 2 weeks but so far I still prefer bombs over nades for solo roaming. When in a group I’ll swap to nades.

This is what I would do instead (since I have this gear and not your gear):
Fresh Air

katniss.6735:

This is what I would do instead (since I have this gear and not your gear):
Fresh Air

That looks solid with stop drop and roll in there. I might have to try this out I know they fixed the trait so that it doesn’t activate and go on cd unless you do remove one of those with a dodge.

I get paranoid with confusion. Due to my high crit damage I can really burst myself down if I can’t get it off in time. Having 500+ healing power helps here. I don’t think 300 would cut it, and etheral renewal is just death without wasting a cd or using it just after updraft.

katniss.6735:

I get paranoid with confusion. Due to my high crit damage I can really burst myself down if I can’t get it off in time. Having 500+ healing power helps here. I don’t think 300 would cut it, and etheral renewal is just death without wasting a cd or using it just after updraft.

Your crit damage, or your damage in general has no influence on the amount of damage you take from confusion. It scales off of condition damage from the applier and ticks once every time you activate a skill.

To everybody else, thanks a ton for the tips, particularly the engineer outline. I’m giving stop drop and roll a try based on what you said about their reliance on burning. Don’t think I’ll be able to stomach focus offhand tho, too much mobility loss.

I think in general I’m just going to have to accept that they’re a weakness and not fight them inside their turret/aoe ranges. I tend to go full aggro alot and end up eating alot of net shots, so I think reminding myself to back off and engage on my terms should help turn things around.