Guild Wars 2

I’m currently lvl 76 and have been running a P/P with FT/EG condition build for nearly my entire leveling process. Soon I will hit 80 and will begin amassing exotics. So…

What sort of gear should I be getting to start? I’m not opposed to switching my build. But I don’t want to simply follow the flavor of the month builds that some people feel are required.

I’ve read that some people feel Berserkers is the only way to go. Is there a balance between condition, precision, & power that I can get that is versatile for multiple builds? Is vitality or toughness more important? Or should I keep them about even?

I’m sort of clueless as to where to begin getting armor too. I know I can find the looks I want, but where do I find the stats I want? Karma? Dungeons? TP? Craft? MF?

I plan on spending my time in open world PvE and dungeons. No WvW. Eventually, fractals.

I’m only 72 on my Engi so I’m by far no expert but this is something I was planning.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0piYX3SdF1LJyoCdGIF5VdJqQ+95Bb1WQIA-jgxAkFg8XR0YbDFRjVJhpKJiq9GFRrGA-e

Engineer here, I have rolled all builds possible. For dungeons you have many options but 2 of them are TOP: Grenadier and Flamethrower.

THE WAY OF THE FLAMETHROWER

I will be talking about the Flamethrower because I have played it since a low level and it’s a part of me. I never miss with it although people keep complaining about it. You just need a few days to master the kiting technique since the range isn’t that great. Feel it, become a part of it. You should consider it a melee weapon perfectly suitable for controlling mobs (single or a large group).

I also have to admit that this weapon’s damage will always be lower than other, no matter how high your Power and Precision will be.

THE BUILD

So don’t let me deviate too much from the point. If you want a high survivability get yourself a Knight’s set. This set is Power + Precision + Toughness. Engineer’s health is pretty decent and this toughness will turn you into a moving fortress. Now let’s talk abut Might. Might makes it right! At level 80, a single stack of might gives + 35 Poser and 35 Condition damage. With the flamethrower and the trait 5 from explosives is best to have them both. This build will work in perfect harmony since it stacks might like there’s no tomorrow.

• The dungeons for Power Precision Toughness are items are: Sorrow’s Embrace and Arah. If you want to buy it from the vendors you will need a lot of tokens. I suggest farming Sorrows Embrace since Arah is more difficult. It will worth every minute of your farm

• As an alternative you can buy knight’s Rate set much cheaper. It’s not the best in the game but it’s a very decent start.
  Explosives: V
  Traits: Firearms 30: V, VIII, XI
  Alchemy: 30: II, VII, XI

SKILLS AND PLAY-STYLE

Besides having the Flamethrower equipped, remember that HGH trait helps ups get might out of every elixir we drink. Use the following:

- For Healing, use Elixir H (will also grant you might)
- Constantly drink Elixir B to gain fury, might, retaliation, and swiftness.
- Drink Elixir C, converting all conditions into random boons. (+ gain might)
- Ultimate (as you wish, I recommend supply drop for being a perfect “panic” button and often saving your allies.)

The Flamethrower Attack: Napalm blast when approaching an enemy (works very well on groups) followed by Napalm at the enemy feet. Napalm is a wall of fire. If the enemy steps away you can kite them leading them back in. Enjoy a burning of about 400 per tick. If the enemies surround you, dodge, escape and repeat. The alternatives is to push foes back with Smoke Vent.

RUNES

Well, this is an will remain open debate. I have slowly gone from runes that help stack might and boon duration to Ruby Orbs and back. Depends on your preference and money. However the flamethrower damage will not be greatly affected.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING

This food will make you almost immortal: Omnomberry Pie. What gives? 60% chance to seal life on critical hits. Why is it worth it? Because of a high chance to crit obtained from all the precision.

Remain in this Weapon Kit and switch to rifle when you need distance (some bosses are situated at a certain range). Why rifle and not pistol? Because rifle deals raw damage while the pistol is conditions oriented. However you can use a Shield with your pistol and the shield also offers invulnerability and help manipulate mobs. It is up to you, I prefer the rifle for the net and overcharged shot.

Weapon Sigil? Iam using Superior Sigil of Fire: 30% chance to cause flame blast on critical hit causing AoE damage. U know..? Another flame blast every 6 seconds beside the one you constantly deliver from Napalm. SWEET !!! However this one is like 6 gold… so a cheaper option would be Superior Sigil of Force +5% damage.

CONCLUSION

The Flamethrower skills recharge fast and you will constantly be busy. Keep a fair distance from the monsters and keep kiting them. You will be the perfect tank in a dungeon and this is a very important role. Although your health will not go down so fast, remember that a good tank does not resist an attack – he dodges it.

Enjoy your free legendary weapon while other grind themselves to death, dragging their balls trough miles of broken glass just for obtaining something half as cool as the Flamethrower.

Thanks and good luck

Thanks for the tips.

I ran CoE all paths last night & found the HGH FT to be quite good. Obviously, haven’t geared up yet but the build was working for me. However, in other dungeons lack of range seemed to be a problem. CoE is fairly tight and so the FT was fantastic but in CM for instance, I would get trounced by aoe or constantly chasing mobile enemies. Not being geared yet with much survivability I’d sometimes get torn up by excess aoe and what not. Staying at range seemed a safer bet until I can get better geared (and learn the dungeons more).

I’m going to try an HGH Grenade build for the next dungeon run. See how that suits me. Also, I’m dropping my trusty P/P combo for a shield. Spending so much time in a kit means the shield’s long cooldowns won’t really be a problem.

We’ll see which works best. Might just swap around for a while.

Regarding FT/Grenades: I was going to run a Rampagers set (prec, pow, cond) because both kits stack great burning or bleeds well, plus the pistol’s attacks. I was then going to supplement that with accesories for survival (ie – Cleric’s ring or something) Thoughts on this?

Seras.5702:

Staying at range seemed a safer bet until I can get better geared (and learn the dungeons more).

[s]thank you for adding that… i keep running into this horrible misconception that you have to build tanky for melee, my full zerk mesmer does fine with sword+focus 90% of the time, my mostly zerk warrior (tiny bit of knights) is almost always gs/axe+x (unless i need range)

the things that annoy me about rangers in dungeons
-building tanky (i hate any player who build pvt, clerics is minorly better, but only if you put out aoe heals)
-using a bear (drakes, cats, birds, moas and fern hound are so much better in dungeons)
-staying single target (theres places where cleave is ridiculously useful, and so many rangers dont carry an axe (not cleave… but still a bit of aoe), sword or gs with them for consistent aoe)

id suggest zerkers or rampagers, but you have to be able to find your dodge button and see wind ups
if you find youself needing some survivability add in some knights,rabid or clerics[/s]

wow… mb… i thought i was still on the ranger forum (multiple tabs ^^;)

Seras.5702:

Thanks for the tips.
Regarding FT/Grenades: I was going to run a Rampagers set (prec, pow, cond) because both kits stack great burning or bleeds well, plus the pistol’s attacks. I was then going to supplement that with accesories for survival (ie – Cleric’s ring or something) Thoughts on this?

I suggest to learn and dodge AOE damages since most of them are shown by a red circle on the ground. Guild Wars 2 in my experience has proven to be a game of extremes. If you go condition, go all the way. Choosing a Rampager set with Grenades is smart. You will not hit many critical but you won’t have to. The condition damage numbers evaporating from your foes will bring satisfaction.

PS: Dude! Don’t forget about nourishment during dungeons! It’s as important as your items. And since you don’t have a set yet, you can count on these. I told you about the Flamethrower, but if you go condition damage buy a few of these from Trading Post:

Plate of Fire Flank Steak
or
Super Veggie Pizza

Good luck!

I’d also note that with the Flamethrower builds, be sure to completely mix up your Elixirs to the purpose at hand. I’ve found that Elixir R tends to be a godsend in many situations. If you’re on your kitten you’re probably about to get it handed to you. For high knockdown/condition situations (running through and/or skipping trash sometimes) you can even pop your goggles in for another stun break though I wouldn’t keep them there for an actual fight.

Also, mixing up HGH and Cleansing 409 is pretty handy situationally. The extra might stack may not mean much if your Elixir C is on cooldown.

Another viable deviation is the first tier in Firearms. I tend to run with the speedboost on crit trait rather than vulnerability. We aren’t taking the points in the toolkit for freebie speed, and Flamethrower works at medium range, so having some additional maneuverability can be situationally awesome.

All this being said, since you asked for general information, also be sure to look up the grenadier/condition damage builds that circulate around. They are very potent, high damage, and frequently less dangerous than flamethrower due to being able to lob those kittens from a far distance. I personally find flamethrower to be more viscerally fun, but I can’t gainsay a great damage build like grenadier either. Experiment and find what you like the best and provides you and your compatriots the most benefit.

yep, that’s pretty well how I would trait for PVE,

you can also substitute elixir C for utility goggles for fury (more crit!) and Analyze (vuln stacks), and I always prefer medkit for #5 swift/fury over elixir H.

Seras.5702:

Thanks for the tips.
Regarding FT/Grenades: I was going to run a Rampagers set (prec, pow, cond) because both kits stack great burning or bleeds well, plus the pistol’s attacks. I was then going to supplement that with accesories for survival (ie – Cleric’s ring or something) Thoughts on this?

I run a variant of the Sickman Syndrome build that focuses on Might stacking through abuse of the On Heal trigger through Altruism runes and Explosives X: Enhance Performance.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/PVE-The-Sickman-syndrome/first#post1664066

The build focuses primarily on Grenades for damage as it is the best damage engineer has at the moment, but because the only requirement is the Sigil of Battle on the mainhand, and slotting Med Kit, you can use any other damaging kit, really. You can even slot Mainhand Rifle and instead go down Firearms for Rifle Mod and Precise Sights, or get Juggernaut for Flamethrower.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/engineer/?2.0|a.1o.h1h.e.1o.h1|0.0.0.0.0.0|1c.71i.1c.71i.1c.71i.1c.71i.1b.71h.1c.71h|411.d1a.1o.63.1o.63.1o.63.1o.63.8c.63|u5ab.5.0.p17.a6|1.7|2d.2f.2v.2i.0|e

The other kit slotted is Elixir Gun for its Regeneration through the toolbelt skill, and the condition clear for your team through Fumigate and the AOE healing of Super Elixir.

I use Boon Duration runes instead of Might duration because I want to maximise the use of Energy Conversion Matrix. You could slot Might duration runes instead and use those 5 points into Tools for the Throw Elixir R reset at 25% health.

My gear isn’t fully optimised yet, but the build stands pretty solid as it is, with a high effective health pool. I’ve taken it into WvW and gotten a few badges with it. In WvW I would slot Toolkit instead of Elixir R, or Elixir S. Invigorating Speed would instead be replaced by Self Regulating Defenses.