Guild Wars 2

I’m feeling slightly stale with my characters at the moment, and I want to give engineer another go. I previously had one upto level 14 but lost all interest when I learnt that grenade kits were the only real good damage; grenades are just so boring…

I love the dual pistols and I would love to know if anyone runs a successful build using no grenade, flamethrower or bomb kits, instead just pistols + utilites (turrets I do like though). Or it the engineer destined to just spam grenades?

Just play what you enjoy, I run around with the Tool Kit, for example. It’s not recommended, powerful or anything, but it’s fun to do.
If you’re not enjoying yourself playing a game, you’re doing it wrong.

Sure, pick up Elixir U and some gadgets and go to town.

Engineers are not destined to spam grenades. Except maybe in WvW.

For fun like PvE – Sure.

Competitively – Grenades blow everything else out of the water…

Sure why not?

If I were to do it, I’d probably use a build like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcIQJAqalspSV3ySeF17IBoH7t+8V0j8/YK/pAbB;TQAAzCpMiYSA

(copy and paste the link, gw2 forum doesn’t like linking gw2skills.net)

With kits you can have just about the most skills in the game.
Without kits you can have just about the least skills in the game.

Without kits you are stuck with no secondary weapon option and with just elixirs your toolbelt and utility skills are support based(unless traited for meh damage)
Mixing elixirs and gadgets will probally net the best results and most fun.
In Pve turrets can be very useful, in PvP they are a boderline gimmick.

Yes you can be a non-kit engineer, its doesnt seem like Anet wanted that option to be too appealing but its still an option I guess.

How come grenades out compete the bomb kit, wouldn’t the bombkit deliver a higher DPS result given the sacrifice of literally being in a monsters face?

Check out Vudani’s “Skirmishing Alchemist” engineer video on YouTube. Not sure if it’s the best build as far as utility goes, but I have fun with it. He focuses on condition damage with nothing but dual pistols, elixirs and supply crate.

Grenades are probably the highest in pure dps you can go, but it doesn’t mean it’s the only thing you can play.
In PvE and casual PvP condition based dual pistol with EG support is actually viable. Just don’t expect to be top dps or for it work in more competitive PvP scenarios, but it’s still functional and fun to play.

Actually, condition pistols are the 2nd best DPS possible by the engineer after power grenades.

Go with a 10/30/0/30/0 build, popping your elixers often. Stack condition damage > precision > toughness on your gear. It’s a killer build, and probably the easiest to play in the game. Nothing can compare to the blowtorch and the poison dart volley in terms of condition damage.

There is another topic a few down from this discussing pistol condition builds specifically. If you want, I could create the ideal build for you in a calculator.

Bard.7215:

How come grenades out compete the bomb kit, wouldn’t the bombkit deliver a higher DPS result given the sacrifice of literally being in a monsters face?

grenades get a 50% boost from its grand master. Before 60 bombs are the most dps. Some day anet will get around to buffing the class up to exceptable damage and nerf the hell out of granades

I don’t want them to nerf the hell out of grenades, I still want them to be the staple of demo Engi’s.. I just want them to be on par with bomb kit so both are required of demo engi’s.

Are grenades actually that powerful compared to other classes DPS potential? I’ve had them thrown at me in WvW a few times and it was like ‘um, hey, that tickles. Please stop.’ but I guess those guys could have just been terrible.

Yes

but for WvW i allways have Medkit on

LameFox.6349:

Are grenades actually that powerful compared to other classes DPS potential? I’ve had them thrown at me in WvW a few times and it was like ‘um, hey, that tickles. Please stop.’ but I guess those guys could have just been terrible.

thats because you got hit by a single granade, get hit by 3 2.5 times a second.

I actually never use grenade kit, only its toolbelt skill barrage. In PvP i can do lots of damage without weaponkits. Just use Elixer B, flamethrower gives you this really nice toolbelt skill (3 times burning).

Bard.7215:

I don’t want them to nerf the hell out of grenades, I still want them to be the staple of demo Engi’s.. I just want them to be on par with bomb kit so both are required of demo engi’s.

they must nerf it, if anything else we had was that strong, engineers would be beyond stupidly op. i mean grenadier is the strongest dps trait in game with a laughable build requirements

Yes I run an engineer with a rifle and no toolkits in open world PVE and it’s pretty viable.

In dungeons I use P/S and grenades tho.

Sure you can be whatever you want. However I will suggest to you that you learn to use all your skills.. Sometime you will need to use <insert skill here> and it is just nice to whip it out and have some fun.

As others have said, full elixer build + condition based pistols doesn’t require any kits. Stack 10 might through rapid potion consumption and go to town.

Rifle + Utility goggles = the easiest 1 man vulnerability cap in the game.

Gadgets go well with anything. They are fun too. Nothind is better then trolling players or mobs with the gadgets that keep the on their backside the whole fight. It is fun when you run into a thief in WvW or PvP and typing in chat
“Your initiative is full and your health is not, what happened?”
As your walking away from his dead body.

Really makes a person scratch his head about all of these threads pop up asking how to kill a thief.

i use dual pistols with about 1.12k condition damage, and piercing pistol shots, heal skill is elixir, then it goes elixir R/B and goggles and elite is supply crate iirc i have 30 explosions/30 firearms/ the rest into alchemy

they must nerf it, if anything else we had was that strong, engineers would be beyond stupidly op. i mean grenadier is the strongest dps trait in game with a laughable build requirements

Probably the dumbest “nerf this qq” post on this forum.

The trait buffs grenades a lot, but only up to par with other professions, most of which can do more damage. In other words, if you would nerf grenadier, you’d have to buff grenade base damage by quite a lot.

That’s why they likely will never nerf it. There’s just no need for it. Sure, bad players will QQ about it, but that’s typical.

Rifle, net turret, elixer B, slick shoes, supply drop
Lots of CC (Creature control) with nets, knockdowns, and stuns and wittle them down with rifle.

Very potent 1v1 and ok in a zerg.

Weakness is theif using 100% invis exploit as you only have 1 rifle ability and your elite that hits AoE. Thieves not using the exploit are easy in 1v1.

I would add that turrets are not dependent on your stats, so you can run two pistols with condition damage stats and still throw down direct damage with turrets. Sure, it won’t be the best build, but it’s definitely viable as long as you’re not in tournament pvp.

nades are great and everything. I really love them but many times, against a running target they are very useless (expecially when they run away from you). I just use my rifle and spam them with 2k5 crit, they drop like fly.

Gilgamesh.2561:

Sure, pick up Elixir U and some gadgets and go to town.

Engineers are not destined to spam grenades. Except maybe in WvW.

Right now they are designed for exactly that exepct sPvP.