Guild Wars 2

I am wrong here. I usually try to find different builds, but what mostly pops up are differed, HGH-oriented conditioneer builds.

Do HGH builds strive ahead significantly compared to other builds? Now there is nothing wrong with HGH/condi builds in my eyes, but I would like to try something new. I have only been 80 for about a month or so, but pretty much ran HGH the whole time ever since. What do you guys run?

I notice that there is a lot of flexibility in the game as well. If you have a well-built err… build, would it be equivalent to say, a practical HGH grenade build? Or do a select few builds strive ahead in that sense?

Well, there is the Static Discharge build. Typically runs with Berserker Gear and relies on high Critical Chance and high Critical Damage. It’s something of a glass cannon, but it delivers decent non-condi based damage.

Unfortunately Engineer is very much a one trick pony..

Dante.1508:

Unfortunately Engineer is very much a one trick pony..

Yep right now they messed up the traits in the engineer tree. It’s nowhere near what the ranger and thief enjoy in terms of multiple ways of building might fury and other boons. It’s all just elixirs or the FT traits.

They have us so pigeonholed we don’t really have a choice. The same goes for speed. Every single build out there uses 10 points in the last line because we have 0 options for speed boosts while out of combat unlike the other two adventurer classes.

Really depends on if you’re playing PvP/WvW/PvE.

In sPvP Engineers are better off than a lot of other professions at the moment in that we at least have both a few viable bunker build and HGH variants. A very small step down from those builds, the SD builds are also still viable up until you get to very high end play.

This build which someone posted a while back is like a hybrid of the old hundred nades and SD build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0pqdHxSyF17IyoHdGpJagKkXfewWpFEC

Left the runes out but I usually do berserker full damage type stuff. With rifle and toolkit you have some good defensive options and can also do quite decent burst with grenade barrage + analyze while barrage is queueing followed by throw wrench. I can’t say how viable it is at higher level tourneys but it’s quite fun to play imo.

Soon.5240:

Well, there is the Static Discharge build. Typically runs with Berserker Gear and relies on high Critical Chance and high Critical Damage. It’s something of a glass cannon, but it delivers decent non-condi based damage.

I had 10 rounds versus a HGH Grenades engineer in PVP. I used SD. The score was 10-1 in his favor. He used conditions and the SD build doesn’t have enough cures. I can say that in PVP conditions are better, but in WvW the SD is deadly as well.

@Tigirius I keep seeing you posting about Adventure and Soldier classes, what is it you mean with with?? Is it just a smart way to say medium armor and heavy armor or have I missed something important? :P

Beisde that, on topic:
HGH Grenades are still great, but other condition damage based builds are now viable as well in both sPvP, and have been so in WvW for a long time as well! You will see Teldo and Ostrich Eggs as well actually, both run none HGH builds in the current sPvP meta.

In WvW, you don’t need HGH at all to make effektive condition builds, I personal run several different without, and you can check out my videos for more info about it following my signature, you can also spot Koroshi running some intrestring condition damage builds!

Overall tho, Condition does beat power at the current PvP meta most of the time! The way we can stack conditions and how they work, simply end up better then power damage, unless you run in larger groups, where power is better, duo to the way conditions stack! That said, HGH power builds and Stastic Discharge builds are all decent builds for some power fun!

In PvE I have personal found that both things works, and many builds can be used, grenades and bombs outshine the rest somewhat (at least in my expeirnce to FOTM level 16 and dungeons exp mode), but i have fun with both condition and power builds, and also support healing builds (Healing Turret <3)

Am I the only one who doesn’t like HGH builds? I feel naked without at least 2 kits, making them pretty awful for me to use every time I try. I always end up in some situation where the extra kit could have saved me or allowed me to pull off something awesome. For example, yesterday I was soloing a supply camp and ended up getting jumped. I was able to elixir gun blast myself away, gear shield block, run up a hill…drop smoke bomb, detonate my shield for stealth, then run directly through the 10 people chasing me and into the water. Wish I recorded it

I also feel like not running healing turret, especially in team WvW, is really a no go for me…it brings way too much to team fights.

To directly answer, yes there are definitely non-HGH viable builds. Whoever said Engi are pigeon holed currently is silly – we probably have more viable build diversity than most other professions.

There are many builds of which you can run and be effective. There is 1 build you can run and be OP.

The first question you need to ask when looking for a build is what do you want to do? There are many different styles of game play. Do you want sustained damage? Do you want spike damage? Do you want to bunker? Once you figure this out, then you need to figure out what kits(if any), you are best with. There is no one way to be great at the Engineer class, and that is the beauty of it.

Velron.3729:

Am I the only one who doesn’t like HGH builds? I feel naked without at least 2 kits, making them pretty awful for me to use every time I try. I always end up in some situation where the extra kit could have saved me or allowed me to pull off something awesome. For example, yesterday I was soloing a supply camp and ended up getting jumped. I was able to elixir gun blast myself away, gear shield block, run up a hill…drop smoke bomb, detonate my shield for stealth, then run directly through the 10 people chasing me and into the water. Wish I recorded it

I also feel like not running healing turret, especially in team WvW, is really a no go for me…it brings way too much to team fights.

To directly answer, yes there are definitely non-HGH viable builds. Whoever said Engi are pigeon holed currently is silly – we probably have more viable build diversity than most other professions.

I haven’t run HGH in ages. I find it very boring and repetitive.

JubeiTM.5763:

Soon.5240:

Well, there is the Static Discharge build. Typically runs with Berserker Gear and relies on high Critical Chance and high Critical Damage. It’s something of a glass cannon, but it delivers decent non-condi based damage.

I had 10 rounds versus a HGH Grenades engineer in PVP. I used SD. The score was 10-1 in his favor. He used conditions and the SD build doesn’t have enough cures. I can say that in PVP conditions are better, but in WvW the SD is deadly as well.

You can’t really use pvp duels as a measurement for how viable a build is unless your only criteria for the build is how well it does in pvp duels. Granted, HGH is better overall, I’m agreeing, but your logic for justifying it is wrong to me in that post.

Basically @Amadeus they gave us leather armor (adventurer class) but the traits of a soldier class.

Adventurer classes = Thief Ranger
Soldier classes = Warrior Guardian

Because of the missing traits in our lines we don’t have near as many boon appliers and the behaviors of our traits are more closely related to those of the warrior or guardian (but with fewer boons) rather than a thief or ranger.

So our traits are discombobulated and needs some serious work.

galandor.1059:

Velron.3729:

Am I the only one who doesn’t like HGH builds? I feel naked without at least 2 kits, making them pretty awful for me to use every time I try. I always end up in some situation where the extra kit could have saved me or allowed me to pull off something awesome. For example, yesterday I was soloing a supply camp and ended up getting jumped. I was able to elixir gun blast myself away, gear shield block, run up a hill…drop smoke bomb, detonate my shield for stealth, then run directly through the 10 people chasing me and into the water. Wish I recorded it

I also feel like not running healing turret, especially in team WvW, is really a no go for me…it brings way too much to team fights.

To directly answer, yes there are definitely non-HGH viable builds. Whoever said Engi are pigeon holed currently is silly – we probably have more viable build diversity than most other professions.

I haven’t run HGH in ages. I find it very boring and repetitive.

Me too. Stacking 25 stacks of anything just to do decent damage is not only boring it’s also a testament to just how broken the class is.

There’s lots of ways to play engis now in tourneys.

Most of the time it’s 30 up explosives, 15 up tools with the extra 25 points going up either alchemy or firearms, mainly 15 fire 10 alchemy. I would personally recommend bomb kit and grenades with incendiary powder up explosives. I’ve seen tool kit/nades, tool kit/e-gun (not 30 up explosives), bomb kit/FT, nade kit/FT, nade kit/tool kit, e-gun/nades and any other combination work for condis. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses, but they’re all at least somewhat viable (some moreso than others) in tourneys for condi damage. For weapons you can do p/p or p/s. For sigils you can do geomancy/battle/earth/doom. For runes you can do undead or nightmare (nightmare + earth = extra 2 seconds on the bleed, nightmare + smoldering on the mainhand = 6 seconds on incendiary powder)

For power, sadly, HGH nades seems to be the best and will probably remain so until something changes.

This advice is mainly for tourneys since I dont really do condis in WvW :P

Dante.1508:

Unfortunately Engineer is very much a one trick pony..

If you truly believe this then you really haven’t explored the possibilities on the Engie.

I am running my own build but it’s not uncommon. I’m playing 30/10/0/10/20, p/p, nades and tool kit. I really like the toolkit for the 16s cooldown block and the nice confusion. The pull is great to catch runners as well and u can set up some great burst with it.

Leadfoot.9071:

This build which someone posted a while back is like a hybrid of the old hundred nades and SD build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0pqdHxSyF17IyoHdGpJagKkXfewWpFEC

Left the runes out but I usually do berserker full damage type stuff. With rifle and toolkit you have some good defensive options and can also do quite decent burst with grenade barrage + analyze while barrage is queueing followed by throw wrench. I can’t say how viable it is at higher level tourneys but it’s quite fun to play imo.

I am also running a variation of this build, with a few differences that really change the overall feel.

I am using the heal turret, which still procs the SD in a straight line in front of me, and it does take some getting used to for the camera angle… but it is EXCELLENT support and condition removal for a build with essentially none.

I am using Runes of the Earth for my gear x 4, and 20 points in alchemy with the protection on disabled, and then 2x runes of the monk for more boon duration. I also run with 3x might on healing, because my heal is on a shorter cool down, and the might fits nicely with all the boon duration, just like the protection.

I typically run with Elixir S in WvW unless I am in a group of 3 or more, because then I can use the goggles for a stun break and still get the tool kit utility to work with the SD correctly.

My weapon is where I diverge even more, with p/s for support and using the extra conditions on certain professions, such as poison on guardians, confusion on thieves, etc. It meshes nicely with grenades, and I mostly run givers weapons for the duration and then sigil of ice and sigil of bloodlust.

The ice is great… since in close combat with the SD bounce, the grenade barrage, and the throw wrench double tap, will get you ~20 possible procs on 2 or more targets in the time it takes to spam all your tool belt skills, and definitely will trigger once when not on cool down. Combine with a chili pepper popper on top of good boon and condition duration for more damage during the day and chill during the night.

tigirius.9014:

Dante.1508:

Unfortunately Engineer is very much a one trick pony..

Yep right now they messed up the traits in the engineer tree. It’s nowhere near what the ranger and thief enjoy in terms of multiple ways of building might fury and other boons. It’s all just elixirs or the FT traits.

They have us so pigeonholed we don’t really have a choice. The same goes for speed. Every single build out there uses 10 points in the last line because we have 0 options for speed boosts while out of combat unlike the other two adventurer classes.

The worst thing is, they’re nerfing other traits/skills with an assumption that every Engineer has HGH traited. So instead of fixing the real problem (HGH being lolOP), they’re just destroying build diversity.

Personally, I used to love playing my Rifle/Grenade/Bunker build in WvW, but now it’s just trash thanks to the nerfs. Yet meanwhile in the sPvP forum, posters profess Engineers to be a T1 class.

The motto very much seems to be spec “HGH or GTFO”.

I think most turret builds do not use HGH, although I don’t really know any turret builds, never something I’ve been interested in.

I’ve run defensive specs without HGH before, although those generally aren’t great at killing things.

No hgh no problem: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlspyXnuSiF17ISIFF29JSxjRZfewWtFEC-TkAg0CvIsRZjzGjNSbs2MsA

Condi build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqelspyXnuynF17IBoH5Fw8VkiHT5PKYrcB-ToAAzCpIaS1krJTTymsNNqYSA

People should run more control/ projectile hate/ boon removal if they hate hgh so much. Changing your game plan is part of adapting to the meta. If a lot of teams are running HGH, punish that choice and enjoy being fed easy wins. Have a dedicated HGH killer on your team if you must (yes that does work if you know what you’re doing).

30 (I, V, VIII)/ 10 (VI)/ 0/ 20 (I, IX)/ 10 (VI)
Healing Turret, flamethrower, bomb kit, elixer R, supply crate
pistol (doom) shield (smoldering)
nightmare runes/ rabid ammy/ jewel

Is a build Teldo just came up with and is sooooooooooooooooo much fun.

vinceftw.5086:

I am running my own build but it’s not uncommon. I’m playing 30/10/0/10/20, p/p, nades and tool kit. I really like the toolkit for the 16s cooldown block and the nice confusion. The pull is great to catch runners as well and u can set up some great burst with it.

haha nice, I’m running the same trait allocation but I use the rifle for the single target CC.

I recently use this build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqalIqiYH5SXF1rIyoHdmotZfewWvFEC-ToAAzCpIaS1krJTTymsNN+YuA
Very high condi damage, very dodgy and with awesome net and lots of control and cripple you land your grenades without problems:-)

I run what is namely a SD build.

It is typically 0 30 10 0 30

I run it with 3 different gear sets depending on what I want to do.

Condition: P/P with pistol traits, healing turret, EG, rifle turret, (open slot) I use a mix of carrion and rampager gear, with an earth sigil, and a + condi sigil. For runes I typically go for rampager gems, but I am trying out different builds atm.

WvW team / roaming: Rifle, healing turret, tool kit, rifle turret, thumper turret. Invader gear, mixed with some knights. knight orbs. Good for burst dps, burst healing, and staying alive with dodging + tool kit block.

Crit build: Rifle healing turret, tool kit, rifle turret, pbr. I run valk gear with a bit of knights, and then berzerker orbs. Good for burst dps, and a mix of melee + mid range.

With both rifle builds I run the sigil of blood for power stacking, but when I hit 25 I swap to a second rifle with sigil or fire or air.

The condi build is something new I have been playing around with. The damage is actually really nice since is has a good amount of power ontop of condi, and good crit thanks to tools. Between rifle turret, the firearms trait, and the sigil of earth, there is great bleed stacking. 10-12 stacks + with the burning, posion, and confusion, with a bit of power damage on the 1 skill from EG, acid bomb, and the constant SD’s.

There really isn’t a build that replaces HGH grenade for dps’ing, but I hate the way that build plays, so I play around and find builds I like using. As long as the bosses / enemy players die, I do not really care about min / maxing so much, even if I am technically gimping myself.

My WvW Builds:

Power build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0pqbHxSyF17IyoHdmotZhKUYfewWtFEC-jkCBYLBhgAgwAJBqIaslRFRjVVjIqWxAzOWIySO1eDYCBQeCA-w

Cond Build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqel0pqbn1SyF1bJxIFdW0hKUYQK0bdFVI/fKwWA-jkCBYLIINBkWAkwII5QFRjtaqIasqaER1qbY2xDRzSO1CBsYOA-w

Boon based condition (stopped playing this after last kitten nerf):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqel0pqbn1SyF1LJyIFdmoFqQhJSh+lffUIXPIA-jEDBYLIINBkWAkwAhEBIHqIasFhDRr6KsqaER1qbY2xDRzSO1CBsYOA-w

Ostricheggs.3742:

There’s lots of ways to play engis now in tourneys.

Most of the time it’s 30 up explosives, 15 up tools with the extra 25 points going up either alchemy or firearms, mainly 15 fire 10 alchemy. I would personally recommend bomb kit and grenades with incendiary powder up explosives. I’ve seen tool kit/nades, tool kit/e-gun (not 30 up explosives), bomb kit/FT, nade kit/FT, nade kit/tool kit, e-gun/nades and any other combination work for condis. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses, but they’re all at least somewhat viable (some moreso than others) in tourneys for condi damage. For weapons you can do p/p or p/s. For sigils you can do geomancy/battle/earth/doom. For runes you can do undead or nightmare (nightmare + earth = extra 2 seconds on the bleed, nightmare + smoldering on the mainhand = 6 seconds on incendiary powder)

For power, sadly, HGH nades seems to be the best and will probably remain so until something changes.

This advice is mainly for tourneys since I dont really do condis in WvW :P

In a recent stream of yours I heard you saying that you didn’t think Toolkit was a good option in the build you were running and switched to bomb kit? I think the build you were running is very similar to the one Teldo runs actually – the main difference being you take grenades instead of FT and also he takes backpack regen trait instead of some of the more offensive traits you take. Both builds seem like they take quite a bit of skill to play effectively – I think the only condi clears those builds have are via healing turret? I guess survivability comes mainly through the alchemy vigor trait?

Is all you want to do is kill? No ones mentioned a bunker build.

10-0-25-30-0 (5) heal turret/bomb/egun/e-s with pis/shield will do you fine

Pure bunkers might work in lol-spvp. For the rest of the game not so much.
All builds ive posted have a good sustain with 1, 6k+ toughness.
Btw yours is incomplete without gamemode, armor and runes.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqalspyUntSVF1LJRIFJ++gekX9yXRFe8nCsF-ToAAzCpIaS1krJTTymsNNWYWB

That is the build I play for sPvP. I doubt it works anywhere else really well and honestly there will be people arguing on how well it works for what I use it for. I find it fun, its a different build. I don’t like healing turret but if you do then you can save the alchemy points and either get stronger turrets or turrets that blow up when killed, b oth would benefit this build :-).

When protecting points.. 1 v 1 the only fight I have a tough time with is mesmers. Glass cannons are hilarious because turrets take them down before they have a chance to hit me.. I don’t even have to use my pistols .. just avoid their burst.

Questions or improvement ideas i’d love to hear. I don’t play seriously I just joke around and have fun.