Builds for a Rifle Engineer? [PvE]
I usually run something around the lines of this for dungeons/pve http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-V;4Z;0h0m5V1kw0;9;4OO-J-16-48;219;2R;9;2G-Fv0;5VOVTWYXcYi3o_63V-F6Hl
of course you can switch the second kit for whatever your needs are, but i usually use grenades in all dungeons, even if its just for the toolbelt burst. you can slightly change the traits, although it just irritates me to run without cleansing formulae 409, its a must have for me. if you are going pure rifle build then take off 5 from explosives and put an extra 5 in firearms for modified ammunition. though you’ll generally have more dps with this. full berserker with berserker/valkyrie trinkets.
Street Regulator
There are times where I find the rifle is quite useful. For me its:
-Jumping places I probably shouldn’t be able to jump with 5, or being lazy in a tricky bit of a puzzle.
-Immobilizing a dangerous melee boss (like the hammer bosses in cliffside), usually take net turret as well when I do this.
-Knocking back some monsters, such as the vet shamans on the grawl fractal.
Beyond that the base damage, reliability, range and overall utility of the weapon is too low to compete with kits in the same role so I take p/s instead.
Beyond that I quite like using the rifle in spvp for reasons similar to those stated above.
Sorry, I guess I didn’t really answer your question. I guess what I’m saying is while you can build around the rifle as your main damage weapon I don’t find many situations where I’ll gain an advantage by doing so. HGH or static discharge are probably your best options since you can free up your utility slots for them but I don’t much like static discharge without grenade kit and toolkit personally and I’m not a fan of the general mechanic of hgh focused builds.
There are times where I find the rifle is quite useful. For me its:
-Jumping places I probably shouldn’t be able to jump with 5, or being lazy in a tricky bit of a puzzle.
-Immobilizing a dangerous melee boss (like the hammer bosses in cliffside), usually take net turret as well when I do this.
-Knocking back some monsters, such as the vet shamans on the grawl fractal.Beyond that the base damage, reliability, range and overall utility of the weapon is too low to compete with kits in the same role so I take p/s instead.
Beyond that I quite like using the rifle in spvp for reasons similar to those stated above.
Sorry, I guess I didn’t really answer your question. I guess what I’m saying is while you can build around the rifle as your main damage weapon I don’t find many situations where I’ll gain an advantage by doing so. HGH or static discharge are probably your best options since you can free up your utility slots for them but I don’t much like static discharge without grenadge kit and toolkit personally and I’m not a fan of the general mechanic of hgh focused builds.
static discharge and hgh or pretty useless in dungeons/pve….
Street Regulator
I disagree on SD but as I said I’m not a big fan of hgh myself. Having said that do you have any other suggestions for a rifle focused build?
I disagree on SD but as I said I’m not a big fan of hgh myself. Having said that do you have any other suggestions for a rifle focused build?
yes, i posted one above. its a rifle/grenade build. itd be foolish to use p/s or p/p with that gear anyways.
Street Regulator
Pistol/shield is a utility set – Frankly I don’t spend much time outside of kits asides from blowing the weapon cooldowns here and there.
At initial inspection the build you posted seems to be more about explosives than the rifle itself which is why I asked.
Pistol/shield is a utility set – Frankly I don’t spend much time outside of kits asides from blowing the weapon cooldowns here and there.
At initial inspection the build you posted seems to be more about explosives than the rifle itself which is why I asked.
rifle 3 and 5 can hit EXTREMELY high, 2 and 4 are for cc. i dont see much use for p/s in pve to be honest, rifle outdoes it in terms of damage, and damage is most important in pve.
Street Regulator
Rifle 3 is weak. The cast/animation time (around 1.5 seconds from my estimate) means that even sub 100 range you do less dps than with bombs. If you count the bleed stacks the damage is improved but generally you won’t be taking rifle for bleeds.
Rifle 5 is much better since the animation tweak and is a decent dps skill (for engineers anyway) assuming both the start and finish components hit your target.
On my zerker engie the base rifle 5 damage (for both ticks) is 2733. The animation time again seems to be around 1.5 seconds. or so which equates to around 1640 dps before crit multiplication.
However I find that mobs frequently move away from one of the damage ticks or that I use the skill to position myself closer to the target, meaning I miss out on one tick of damage. In this case the damage again drops below bombs, which have a short animation time and a base damage of 1066. It’s also on a 20 second cooldown, making the meaningful dps increase in dungeons minimal over bombs.
Both rifle and bombs have a 10% damage increase trait which would of course have an impact on these numbers.
The thing is, bomb2+shield4 gives you and your entire party 3 stacks of might with a 66% uptime (assuming no boon duration) assuming you are melee stacking (which is when rifle 3 and 5 would be most useful) which gives a slight DPS boost to your whole group.
In addition you can also use bomb 4 and shield 4 to stealth yourself and an ally to res them without pulling boss aggro, something you cannot do with rifle. Unlike most other engie blast finishers shield 4 only has a tiny damage radius meaning you do not drop yourself out of stealth when you use it next to an enemy.
You are also underestimating the usefulness of a channeled block in a lot of dungeons including COF. I certainly don’t find much general use for the reflect component of shield 4 however because you have to root yourself for the duration.
(edited by icewyrm.5038)
I run a Rifle/SD build and really like it. It seems to have quite good damage but we don’t have meters so its all subjective. 0/30/0/10/30 with fast toolbelt cooldown skills like Rifle Turret, Toolkit and PBR or Rocket Boots. I run Zerker gear and love the damage and control of Rifle. 5K blunderbuss and 9k jump shots are not uncommon.
I’m not sure how this compares to bombs or grenades but I feel it’s competitive with my other zerker classes.
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance”
Rifle 3 is weak. The cast/animation time (around 1.5 seconds from my estimate) means that even sub 100 range you do less dps than with bombs. If you count the bleed stacks the damage is improved but generally you won’t be taking rifle for bleeds.
Rifle 5 is much better since the animation tweak and is a decent dps skill (for engineers anyway) assuming both the start and finish components hit your target.
On my zerker engie the base rifle 5 damage (for both ticks) is 2733. The animation time again seems to be around 1.5 seconds. or so which equates to around 1640 dps before crit multiplication.
However I find that mobs frequently move away from one of the damage ticks or that I use the skill to position myself closer to the target, meaning I miss out on one tick of damage. In this case the damage again drops below bombs, which have a short animation time and a base damage of 1066. It’s also on a 20 second cooldown, making the meaningful dps increase in dungeons minimal over bombs.
Both rifle and bombs have a 10% damage increase trait which would of course have an impact on these numbers.
The thing is, bomb2+shield4 gives you and your entire party 3 stacks of might with a 66% uptime (assuming no boon duration) assuming you are melee stacking (which is when rifle 3 and 5 would be most useful) which gives a slight DPS boost to your whole group.
In addition you can also use bomb 4 and shield 4 to stealth yourself and an ally to res them without pulling boss aggro, something you cannot do with rifle. Unlike other engie blast finishers shield 4 does no damage meaning you do not drop yourself out of stealth when you use it next to an enemy.
You are also underestimating the usefulness of a channeled block in a lot of dungeons including COF. I certainly don’t find much general use for the reflect component of shield 4 however because you have to root yourself for the duration.
Cast time on rifle 3 is 1/2 seconds. i usually hit around 4.5k with it, and add 4 bleed stacks…
Street Regulator
The tooltip isn’t accurate. Test it with a stopwatch and see for yourself.
I’ve run an SD rifle build in PvE before. It can be used in dungeons as well (i.e. CoF P1), but you do need to be careful as such a build is quite glassy. Soloing champions or large groups might also be difficult if you get overwhelmed.
The particular build I use is as follows: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0pqdH5STF17IxoHkuzbG0D7mX/+pAbB-j0xAYrgQUCCRAM5VEN2ibR0Y11YKXioapAiYMA-w
It’s fairly tweakable to personal preference as well.
The tooltip isn’t accurate. Test it with a stopwatch and see for yourself.
thats possibly true, but 1.5 seconds is such a ridiculous exaggeration. even if there is some variation, it lies somewhere around .5
Street Regulator
How about you actually test it and then come back and tell me how ridiculous of an exaggeration it is? Thanks.
I tried running a variety of builds(HGH, bombs/grenades, etc) and settled on SD for PvE(not WvW). It hits super kittening hard and with a good group it can output crazy numbers for CoF p1. Some of the other builds might have more utility, but honestly, PvE is…sooo easy that if you’re needing that utility(be it stealth, extra blocks, etc), then you’re probably doing something wrong(or your group is).
How about you actually test it and then come back and tell me how ridiculous of an exaggeration it is? Thanks.
I get about a 1sec cast time for skill 3 from the time i click to the time it goes off. Tested it a few times and get between .9 and 1.1 give or take.