Guild Wars 2

Hi all!

I lurk like a pro, but now it’s time to engage the community

Like subject states, I will be duo with a thief and trying to theorycraft an appropriate build.

I used to run with moderate success a grenadier/rifle build with runes of svanir – mostly power/toughness oriented with elixir r for svanir stun break/easy rez and elixir c for condition removal. this made me really pretty tanky enough to survive for a long enough time and dish out enough dps aoe with almost perma frost with the runes. This is no longer viable in my opinion because of the nerf to runes of svanir being unable to elixir r out of the iceblock.

My main and most important part of the build is to be survivable, with a secondary emphasis on utility. lastly, dps.

I’ve considered the build from Maskaganda see here which is a pistol pistol build focusing on elixirs and survivability/cond dmg.

Also considered was the tankcat build While this build is great for survival, there is a moderate amount of utility and some dps but in my view high cost for gearing (all invader or cata gear)

Static discharge build seems very difficult to survive with. Healing bombs build seems to do too little damage and I feel doesnt give me much for utility or mobility which is essential for small group.

Does anyone else have ideas about how to gear for this duo that would require me to soak up plenty of damage and provide utility while main dps guns down enemies?

Would love to hear about your builds and how they do in reference to small group or solo play in particular.

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Would love to see videos in addition to theorycrafting advice, this is one thing that I have not seen a lot of on youtube, a small amount on the boards but I assume is probably just due to lack of popularity playing engineers compared to some other classes?

CHEERS!

There is a vid a page back or so called Diving into Zergs or something.

It is a Tough/Vit build that focuses on harrassment and survival.
Like Tankcat it does require a gear focus for defense but like all builds you can always switch out a few pieces to better compliment your own playstyle.

Since you are gonna to be running Duo you prolly wont have to focus as much on survival and can trade a few pieces for offensive stuff.

If you are going to be mostly kiting and harassing while your thief friend burns everyone down I would recommend Toolkit and Bombkit with Kit Refinement, you can keep constant nails on the ground and if you run P/S you will have 2 blocks to use.
With Elixir R and Bombkit (smoke bomb + BoB) your should never have a problem rezzing your Thief or yourself in case you get downed.

Mostly it depends on what the Thief is gonna be doing.
If it is a D/D gank Thief than go tanky.
If it is a perma Stealth P/P harrassment Thief, then maybe go 100Nades or SD and you can burn ppl down while the Thief plays peek-a-boo.

Yep, the Diving into zergs or Tankcat builds work well with a thief. But be prepared to get far fewer badges because, though you are an integral part of the duo, you will not do enough damage to get the loots.

Maskaganda’s build…I honestly don’t understand how it’s even effective. I think it works for Mask because he is a great player who would be good using ANY build. You might try it, but I suggest you don’t invest a lot of gold in the gear for it until you get some success.

I run duo with a Theif firend often, and this is is a video with the both of us shwoing how we do it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clii3sP86zk

It’s a tanky and yet good at kiting setup while thowring in some CC. It’s used to distract enemies from the theif, so he can do his stuff! After we play tested it a lot, we found out that was in general the best thing I could do when we were against more enemies!

You can find more info about the setup here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Drakeco-s-PvP-Video-s-30-01-a-Fun-Movie-out/first#post1330947
Where another build that works with Theif duo should hopefully come up when I get my computer back from repair