Guild Wars 2

Sorry to create this awkwardness of a topic, but I just can’t take this thought from my head.
It is not practical, or relevant, or useful at all, but…

If you needed to create an Engie(Or Scrapper) build WITH Rifle and WITHOUT Nades, what would you make? Last balance patch, all modes are valid.

I play rifle a lot, mostly for WvW. Rifle needs some serious balance touch-ups to make it playable (evades on Overcharged Shot and Jump Shot) and generally needs another kit to cover for its long-ish cooldowns. It’s not a weapon you want to camp in all the time – hence grenades. They combo well with Overcharged Shot and Net Shot, which want to keep your target at range and cc’d.

That said, if I had to swap grenades with anything, it’d probably be..

• Flamethrower – not as good with Rifle as it used to be now that it’s a condi weapon. You’d sort of be forced to play a hybrid/cele build. Still, the Juggernaut combo with Scrapper makes for some easy might stacking and good access to stability. That puts you in Firearms and Scrapper. It’d probably best to take Alchemy and go for the HGH / elixir condi cleanse to round out the build.
• Throw Mine – I’m not sure if this still works, but there used to be a full-glass zerker engi build using Throw Mine and its toolbelt skill for ridiculous close range burst. If you’re going this route, you’d probably take Toolkit, Rifle Turret, and the Static Discharge trait. I haven’t tried this build in a long time, but it was hard mode for sure.

i played rifle with toolkit , bomb and 1 elixir ( S or B usually ) . Fun but hard to go in 1 vs 1

Yeah. Toolkit is almost mandatory with Rifle because it has no reliable defense. That recently nerfed 2s block on Gear Shield is a lifesaver.

It combos well too:
Overcharged Shot – Throw Wrench
Magnet – Pry Bar – Blunderbuss – Overcharged Shot – Jump Shot

Toolkit is just a good all-round flavourful engi utility kit.

In PvP you can be reasonable successful with a pure rifle+elixirs build.
The burst is really good.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUlUUhqrY9Vw8KQ+FLTGEY1zeIHX/7jg4zKQAA-TJBFABiXGggHAAAXAga2fAA

Elixir U – > Throw Elixir S → Elixir B → Throw Elixir B → Net Shot→ Overcharged Shot → Blunderbuss → Jump Shot

You can get toolkit in place of one elixir to get a bit of defense and some extra burst with prybar and throw wrench.

On PvE, the main power build uses bombs instead of granades, and riffle is only for burst. Bomb AA is probably the most powerful in the game.

Very interesting and irreverent builds, guys!

I must recognize that I’m not used to the tool kit at all, and I’m still addicted to multiple kits in my utility bar. But I need to try new things, I need to know engie better and improve.

Thanks for the help, and please keep giving ideas!

coro.3176:

I play rifle a lot, mostly for WvW. Rifle needs some serious balance touch-ups to make it playable (evades on Overcharged Shot and Jump Shot) and generally needs another kit to cover for its long-ish cooldowns. It’s not a weapon you want to camp in all the time – hence grenades. They combo well with Overcharged Shot and Net Shot, which want to keep your target at range and cc’d.

That said, if I had to swap grenades with anything, it’d probably be..

• Flamethrower – not as good with Rifle as it used to be now that it’s a condi weapon. You’d sort of be forced to play a hybrid/cele build. Still, the Juggernaut combo with Scrapper makes for some easy might stacking and good access to stability. That puts you in Firearms and Scrapper. It’d probably best to take Alchemy and go for the HGH / elixir condi cleanse to round out the build.
• Throw Mine – I’m not sure if this still works, but there used to be a full-glass zerker engi build using Throw Mine and its toolbelt skill for ridiculous close range burst. If you’re going this route, you’d probably take Toolkit, Rifle Turret, and the Static Discharge trait. I haven’t tried this build in a long time, but it was hard mode for sure.

The mine build is the build I’ve been running on my engi for years. It’s more powerful since the specialization patch and the recent SD buffs, but it’s not worth it because the elite specs and general power creep are too overwhelming.