Guild Wars 2

Hi,

I’m a casual player and thus don’t have that much gold/laurel/etc to afford multiple armor/weapon/trinket sets for multiple builds (FT/bombs/grenades). So, what do you experts suggest when it comes to equip my engi?

As stated in the title I only play PvE/Dungeons and sometimes WvW. Mainly I run with bombs but I like using different kits (e.g. FT), too.

TIA
barghest

P.S.: Yesterday I was in a dungeon with another engi and he gave the whole group 12 sec of stealth? Do you know how this was possible?

Bombs and FT are power kits, so use berserker gear, mix with some more defensive gear if you feel the need.

To stack stealth, do blast finishers in your smoke bomb aoe.
For example, take healing turret bomb and thumper turret and pistol/shield

Drop you healing and thumpet turrets.
Big ol bomb
Smoke bomb
overcharge thumper turret
detonate both healing and thumper turrets
thumper turret toolbelt skill
magnetic shield, detonate it

It looks like a lot of things but it’s all just muscle memory at some point, you can do the same in your Fire bomb aoe to stack might on your allies.

Regarding the stealth:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo
Properly Bomb Kit #4, Big Bomb, Detonate Turret and other blast finisher.

If you only rarely do WvW (e.g. only for the monthly) choose Berserker; you’ll be squishy as hell but if you stay with the zerg and throw grenade from 1.5k distance and pull enemies with the Tool Kit you should be fine.
If you’re doing a lot of WvW you’ll need more survivability, so Knight or Soldier could be suitable options.

A Berserker Rifle for a Bomb Kit build.
Two Giver Pistols or one Giver Pistol and Shield for a Grenade Kit Build.
If you’ve chose Berserker Runes of the Scholar are a good allround option but very expensive; if not 4xTraveler and 2xMad King or 2xWater or 2xMonk, depending if you use +condition duration food.

Thanks for the explanations and advice.

Ingame someone told me that rampager’s armor + berserker trinkets would be viable, too. Is that true?

Usually I don’t use food and sometimes I have the feeling I lack survivabilty (but this can be due to missing training or experience).

Weapons seem clear. For runes I have to take a closer look at the benefits of each type.

barghest.3298:

Thanks for the explanations and advice.

Ingame someone told me that rampager’s armor + berserker trinkets would be viable, too. Is that true?

Usually I don’t use food and sometimes I have the feeling I lack survivabilty (but this can be due to missing training or experience).

Weapons seem clear. For runes I have to take a closer look at the benefits of each type.

I would not recommend it, zerker/rampager just have different playstyles. For pve you will want to mix it up a bit. I recommend spending your karma on accessories I started with solders. (Temple of Grenth) the reason why is mostly to save money. Then get zerker everything else. Once you have laurels get ascended accesories and go with zerker stats. That is of course if you want to play power build.

For conditions I go with a mix of ravager (karma) and rampagers. In pve I feel like conditions are not as strong as power for the engi but it’s still viable.

barghest.3298:

Ingame someone told me that rampager’s armor + berserker trinkets would be viable, too. Is that true?

Read this:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/81211-minmaxin-crit-dmg/#entry2175092
Basically, if you only want to use exotic gear it makes sense to switch Berserker rings, earrings and amulets (in that order) with other gear; don’t switch ascended Berserker trinkets, they are way too good.

Bomb Kit and Flamethrower are both profit more from Power than Condition Damage, and Grenade Kit can be played with Power, Condition Damage or hybrid gear. However even for Grenade Kit it’s questionable if you should bother with Condition Damage, PvE is very condition-unfriendly. Especially with your playstyle preferences you should focus on direct damage.

In open PvE survivability shouldn’t be an issue for an Engineer. Rifle offers immobilize and knockback, Pistol offers blind and immobilize/cripple, Shield offers reflection and block, Grenade Kit offers blind and freeze, Bomb Kit offers blind and immobilize/cripple, Tool Kit offers cripple and block, Elixir Gun offers cripple and a leap away.
In dungeons it’s mostly being able to read the tells and then dodge and having team mates that bring the right support.

edit:
Regarding the runes:
+boon duration is for the Might you generate by using blast finisher in fire fields, and to a lesser degree for Swiftness and Vigor.
+condition duration is mainly for Grenade Kit and to a lesser degree for Bomb Kit; per +10% condition duration you’ll be able to stack 1.5 (Grenade Kit) or 0.63 (Bomb Kit) more Vulnerability on average, meaning your whole team will deal 1.5% respectively 0.63% more direct damage.

edit2:
+ condition duration is capped at 100%. 30 points in Explosives will give you + 30% condition duration, 2 Giver weapons + 20%, 4xTraveler + 10%, so in the end 60%. If you can afford to run around with + 36% or even + 40% condition duration food it makes no sense using 2xMad King (+ 10% condition duration) because you’re already at the cap, in that scenario +boon duration makes more sense.