Guild Wars 2

Which gear set, in your opinion, is most valuable for PvE/Dungeons for a 6/6/0/0/2 Grenades/Bombs/xyz Engineer? (asking this due to the recent “nerf” to +% critical damage stat on berserker)
Berserker: is it still the best, despite the concept of Ferocity?
Assassin: will the increased crit chance help? (using Sigil of Strength on my weapons)
Rampager: will the added condi damage assist me (as grenades and bombs both have a fair number of conditions, as does the pistol)?

Thanks.

PS: Bonus question: best looking dungeon gear set for a male Charr?

6/6/0/0/2 is great in dungeons, don’t listen to xyonon. Just remember you may have to spam your toolbelt skills to get the endurance needed for that extra dodge. Berserker’s will give you the best damage by far— assassins’ is actually got the bad end of the crit damage changes. With any luck your dungeon groups will be providing fury and banner of discipline, which will give you more than enough crit chance.

Zerker, nothing to discuss. Also dungeon build is 6/6/0/2/0, speedy kits is for open world. Vigor > Swiftness in combat.

Berserker. The ferocity change hurt Assassin more than Berserker.

Thanks for the answers!
No inputs on best-looking armor for male Charr?

In terms of dungeons/PvE, what’s everyone using for sigils on their weapons?

6/6/0/0/2 is better for DPS but only by a small amount, about 5% more over time. It does give a fair extra burst at the beginning but if the vigor on crit is necessary, I would just take it since the DPS hit isn’t that big.

Greystar.5920:

Thanks for the answers!
No inputs on best-looking armor for male Charr?

That’s largely a matter of personal preference. I like the Sorrow’s Embrace stuff, myself, and I feel it looks the most tech-y out of all the dungeon armor sets, but you may prefer something else.

I know Zerker is the standard answer, but I’ve had a great experience with Soldiers/brawler. Taking 6/6/-whatevers-good-at-the-time with heal kit/bomb/nade/elixer r/supply and my trusty rifle.

With Zerker I found I was dropping all the time. Getting one shotted, or drawing massive aggro and not being able to take any hits. With soldier/brawler you get all that delicious delicious toughness. Doing dungeons with the finder, I find I’m often the last man standing during encounters that go awry, unless I luck out and get a good guardian on the team.

I’m prepared to admit that I suck, and that’s why I can’t get zerker working for me. I dodge like a madman, even using elixer r to gain that extra endurance.

Vigor = more bombs on dodge but yea. Aslong as you go 6/6/0/X/X everything is ok.

Zerker is sure harder to play than some Soldiers parts, however also more rewarding. Learn it or stay semi efficient. I’d also suggest to learn it slowly, better you deal not max damage but don’t die permanently.

As for sigils you pretty much should go for Sigil of Force (5% damage) and Sigil of Battle (3 stacks might for 20 sec on weapon or kit swap, 10 sec cd). As for runes definitly Rune of Strength. It increases all your might blast finishers (wich is engi must-do) by 45% to nearly 30 sec. You can sustain easily 12-15 stacks by yourself.
You also can use Sigil of Accuracy (+7% crit chance) but I don’t like it since it’s a bit an overkill imo. I think damage is better since modifiers stack better together.

What about Sigil of Strength? 1 stack of Might for 10s on a 1s internal CD, with a 60% chance on Crit?
I was thinking of going Sigil of Night/Sigil of Strength, and one more pistol with Sigil of Force.

Also, Strength Runes are WAAAAY too expensive atm =/ any other cheaper alternatives?

There’s Pack, Ogre, Infiltration, Eagle, etc. that all give decent stats and are much cheaper.

Sigil of Strength is better for grenades since the attack rate on those matches the ICD exactly and it hits 3 times so it’s basically a guaranteed proc per attack. Bombs are much slower and the attack rate doesn’t match up with the ICD very well so you’re better off with something else if you’re using those.

Runes:

• Rune of the Strength is by far the best, but also extremly expensive. But if you love your engi, you should get them.
• Rune of the Pack is a good cheaper alternative, speed is also good for open world. As ^ said, Ogre and Eagle are also ok.

Sigils:

• Sigil of Strength is overrated and rather bad, even with grenades. They hit faster than the proc cd, letting you proc only each 2nd attack. You’ll proc like 1 stack every 2-3 sec, since you are not permanently attacking, and also you will use bombs, like smoke or glue etc wich can’t crit. Tbh, don’t touch this sigil.
• Sigil of Battle grants you 6 (9 with strength) stacks permamight. You can swap whenever you want with the kits, just count to 10 in your head. Extremly good sigil.
• Sigil of Night / Force are even better. Modifier, scales better with might etc.
• Sigil of Accuracy isnt bad either but I think we have enough crit chance.
• Sigil of Bloodlust in open world ofc, swap it when you have stacked it.

i get 8-9 might stacks from sigil of strength with runes of strength:
1. it takes only about 10 seconds to apply them.
2. for s. of battle:10 sec (if we face reality, about 15 seconds) to get the 6 might stacks from swapping, add another 9 seconds to reach 9 stacks that goes back to 6 stacks. an estimation of reality considering no1 actually counts the seconds in their heads-> 22-25 seconds to reach 9 might stacks, and the 9 stacks goes back to 6 stacks fairly quick

3. this third reason is the most comfortable: sigil of strength is a passive. meaning no seconds need to be counted in order to not waste any seconds that provides longer duration of higher stacks.

it’s “overrated” (not “over” for me) for a very good reason IMO. and works most optimal in dungeon runs. for pvp it’s situationally good.

Swagginator.3246:

i get 8-9 might stacks from sigil of strength with runes of strength:
1. it takes only about 10 seconds to apply them.

The sigil has a 60% chance on crit wich is another 60-80% chance wich results into ~36-48% chance on hit per target and since we hit definitly more than 2 mobs in general i absolutely beleve you this without testings. However it also has it’s flaws:

• it has no effect if you can’t crit (structures)
• it has no effect on smoke bomb, glue bomb, etc
• it has no effect while buffing or ressing

Swagginator.3246:

2. for s. of battle:10 sec (if we face reality, about 15 seconds) to get the 6 might stacks from swapping, add another 9 seconds to reach 9 stacks that goes back to 6 stacks. an estimation of reality considering no1 actually counts the seconds in their heads-> 22-25 seconds to reach 9 might stacks, and the 9 stacks goes back to 6 stacks fairly quick

Engi has NO cd on “weapon swap”. So “if we face reality” ~about exactly~ 10 seconds to get 6 might stacks, another 10 sec and you stay on your 9 stacks forever. However I have to admit that you might fall back to 6 for a few sec sometimes.

Swagginator.3246:

3. this third reason is the most comfortable: sigil of strength is a passive. meaning no seconds need to be counted in order to not waste any seconds that provides longer duration of higher stacks.

it’s “overrated” (not “over” for me) for a very good reason IMO. and works most optimal in dungeon runs. for pvp it’s situationally good.

Just becaue you have never used this sigil and you have never learned to estimate 10 sec in you head or be able to count them without high concentration, it won’t make it worse than it is. It makes the rune harder to use yes, yet battle is stronger than strength, especially considering the points I mentioned above. But yes, strength is waaaaaay more comfortable. It’s definitly a good sigil. The main question is “Will I sacrifice comfort for beeing able to sustain my stacks even if I’m not attacking?”

In the end you managed it to make me beleve that they are pretty even . . . BUT I STILL DONT LIKE THEM IN SINGLE TARGET COMBAT!! :OOOOO

Grenades hit almost exactly once per second actually. They’ll connect right in sync with the Strength ICD, meaning you basically get a chance at a proc every toss. You can check it for yourself, it’s not too hard. A zerk 30/30/0/0/10 build has about 55% base crit chance, which means you have a 33% base chance to proc Strength per HIT. 3 hits per attack = about 70% chance to proc Strength with every toss = 7 stacks average. Fury and Accuracy sigil brings that up to about 9 stacks. Hit more than one target and you’ll be proccing it pretty much every time guaranteed so you’re looking at 10 full stacks. Compare that to Battle which is a fixed 6 stacks regardless of the situation and takes 9 seconds to ramp up to that much, compared to Strength which can potentially hit 6 stacks in 6 seconds.

Both, grenades and bombs have a faster attack speed than 1/sec. Grenades just have a mid air time wich makes it possible to burst if moving to a target or attack slower while moving away from it while throwing the nades.
I beleve that grenades will proc it for felt 100% IF the cd is ready. However I doubt that it will allways be. I have to test it myself since I guess that 1sec cd won’t work very well with a close to 1sec cd skill. 10 stacks in 10 sec seem too much theory.
Except as for grenades, everything else will not add a stack all the time if you aren’t facing multiple enemies. If you face a boss you’re gonna have a bad time. Especially if it has some “don’t attack me” or “run forest run!” phases.

Gonna test the cd and proc tonight, however it seems they are pretty even, both have their + and -.

€dit:
I just tested the sigil of strength under the effect of rune of strength. The grenades seem really to attack to fast sometimes. I did not get all the time the might I was hoping for (multi target) especially not against a single enemy. The might stacks are between 6-11. I’ll stay at my battle sigils, however I wouldn’t recommend to swap them either ways. Good balanced sigils imo.

Xyonon.3987:

• Sigil of Battle grants you 6 (9 with strength) stacks permamight. You can swap whenever you want with the kits, just count to 10 in your head. Extremly good sigil.

Shrapnel has a 5 second CD. Press the swap weapon keybind every two Shrapnels and your grenade kit keybind right after, there will be no GCD.

If you’re a bomb user do the swap dance every firebomb since it has a 10 seconds CD.

Personally I use both since I tend to play alone and don’t battle structures, and when I do it does not matter (AKA I am in a zerg). Since I tend to pug and 25 stacks of might are a myth I self buff myself knowing Might is increasing my conditions and direct damage, something the % sigils would not do. I tend to maintain around 14 stacks of Might without fire fields, but I do use runes of Strength.