Guild Wars 2

Which do you run for pve/pvp/wvw and why?

This is not a thread asking you to link your builds per se but at the same time, why have you chosen to run one over the other in different situations. I would think that the 30% damage nerf to grenades some months ago has caused the engineer to become more skewed towards a condition based profession (insert snide versatility comment). There’s nothing wrong with being condition skewed at least in the current state of the game (necromancer). At the same time this brings up the discussion of rifle vs pistol + shield vs pistol + pistol. Generally the rifle has always been our control/power set with the pistol sets being more condition focused. Having only seen ~5 other rifle engineers (and at the same time power) in about a week of game play I’m really forced to wonder what exactly happened to all the rifle engineers?

Admittedly I run a rifle + power grenade build for almost every situation with medkit, grenade kit, elixir r (another thread, another time elixir s) and one utility that varies between situations.

This more than likely boils down to how “safe” the pistol/condition builds are in comparison with rifle/power as the animations are all relatively minimal and hard to differentiate from each other whilst the rifle sees a lot of situational use. For example when you run up to a point with a rifle engineer defending it, you wonder if the engineer will lead with overcharged shot/net shot to keep you off the point, or save it as an interrupt. (Possibly knocking them self down in the process.)

tl;dr

What style of engineer (power/conditions) do you run for pve/pvp/wvw and why?

I guess I fall under power. tho I focus on toughness and vit mostly. damage wise the engi isnt that great, both power or con, but we are great at outlasting and cc so I play to that. I doubt my build is very effective vs players in pvp or wvw, but I do alright in dungeons and general pve. I almost never go down even tho I use the flamethrower/rifle and alternate between them for max damage and cc.
I try to stay away from the popular builds and prefer to make my own.

I’m not all that impressed with our condition options. To be a good condition build you need to stack alot of bleeds quickly, its kinda the key point, and engis cant really do that.
Iv been thinking of respecing and getting power/pre gear for wvw, where burst damage is king and cc like knockbacks and immobilizes are about pointless at least imo.

Right now I am running bombs for pve. Rather than taking Elixir Infused, I use it for damaging, going into Explosives and tools with perma vigor. I generally find the playstyle a lot more fun than spamming grenades, even if the risk of getting downed is higher.

As a pve engineer I tend to trap enemies, it’s just my play style so while solo I use a combo of caltrops, mines, big-ol-bombs and the bombs from the kit to finish them off. I have an all power condi precision set. My Runes on this set consist of +3% damage bonus and the chance for hit to cause fury and 20% fury duration. My traits include healing to cause might to nearbys, and I put a couple of points into the ability to use Elixir B when I reach 75% health so it rebuffs me.

For my healing set (when I had to deal with enormous numbers of mobs in Orr to get resources) I used a Healing Vitality Condi damage set and focused on condi damage and healing bonuses in traits.

If they had a dual spec this would be easier to do.

Engineer is my latest 80, so I’m fairly new. I play almost exclusively WvW and atm I’m running a power grenade build with tool kit, rocket boots(yep) and pistol/shield. I almost never lose 1v1’s and feel I can contribute whenever I run with a zerg. I can get off 3 blast finishers in the healing turrets water field, and I hit like a truck whenever I can set up my grenade “burst”. I also have around 1700 toughness.

Used to play a condi build but got tired of it, and I don’t like the fire-and-forget gameplay of elixirs/hgh, so I came up with this.

Imo the strongest way to play Grenades is hybrid: Power and ConditionDmG together.

Crit and Crit damage does not add as much dmg as most ppl think. Simple example:

Add 1000 power to your base stats means 109% more dmg.

Add 1000 Precision AND +100% CritDmg means only 78% more Dmg.

Nougth said – Grenades are great running power and ConditionDmg. That’s why might stacking is much stronger then on any other build. Anyway – for PvE I mainly choose All-Stat-jewels and Knights/Rampager-Armor.

I like conditions for WvW and power for PvP. I like having very different specs to play. I also find that very few opponents in WvW have any idea how to remove conditions correctly, so that helps.

In PvP, a successful condition damage build depends too much on might-stacking for my taste. In WvW, you can easily get your base stats way higher, so might stacking just doesn’t seem as important there.

Never use condition damage in PvE, I tend to stick with builds that involve power, precision, critical damage, and sometimes condition duration. With the way condition damage works in PvE there are many disadvantages to speccing into it (e.g. stack cap, reduced effective against certain mobs, overlapping, etc…).

In WvW and sPvP I don’t mind speccing into condition damage, and in WvW its even better since it seems many people don’t bother to bring condition removal or just rely on food buffs or something of the sort.

Used to be all power/prec/crit with rifle, nades and static discharge, but now I run with pistol/pistol conditions, both for pve and pvp.

I still feel that I’m not as effective as I used to be, but I feel I have more mobility and survivability. I also bring more to a group fight than before due to elixir tool belt skills, like aoe protection, might and condition removal. I guess it boils down to whether or not you prefer to play solo/small groups or in larger groups.

For me, the downside of power/prec/crit rifle builds is that you are super predictable in pvp/wvw. Pistol/shield can really turn the tide of a fight with a well timed magnetic shield, and it’s alot more satisfying to win by outsmarting your opponent, than just crush him with sheer damage. I do miss the control I had with the rifle., though.

I also agree that conditions are excellent for wvw, since nobody cares about removing them.

Still running condition damage, although my standard PvP build focuses on power.

I’ve tried to make some hybrid builds before, but haven’t really been impressed by them that much, especially since they’re overshadowed by an HGH-centric build.

Focusing on WvW: I’m running a hybrid, with Carrion armor, berserker pistol/pistol and traited 20, 20, 0, 0, 30 — all while using pizza for Condition Duration.. I trait for Static Discharge on my Suprise Shot and Throw Wrench. EG is my third.

In WvW, many enemies panic when they look down and see 5 conditions stacked on them. They feel they must break off the engagement and address the fact that they are poisoned, on fire, crippled, blind, bleeding and fumbling. Contributing this in a group WvW setting is very valuable to the over all out come of the engagement.

I’m a power engi. I only play sPvP.

Why do I play Engi as power with a rifle? Because as neat as the pistol is, and how survivable the shield makes you… The rifle simply outclasses them, it’s too versatile not to use. It also easily has one of THE best auto-attacks in the game, as the shots peirce without needing to be traited.

The rifle gives you mobility, and AoE burst and a KB interrupt on a fairly short CD, not to mention the short CD immobilize. The game is AS much about damage as it is about control, and the rifle has both of those in spades, making it easily the best choice for an engi in Spvp. You have to actually use up a utility slot for any semblance of control if you use pistol, and it won’t be as good as rifle.

Now, I don’t want to say that condi engi’s are bad… BUT, there really isn’t any place for them in high tier PvP, and it’s why you won’t see many in high tier shoutcasted matches. Other classes simply do Condi better than the engi.

Another great reason I use Rifle(and power) over the pistol, is that it’s under-rated yet right in that balance window where it really won’t be touched. I played a power rifle build back when this game launched, and recently got back into the game, some 4 months later and my build is still pretty much as viable as it was back then.

I don’t see the point of using a condition build in PvE except a very few exceptions so power would be the way to go, no matter what your profession.

As for WvW, I think a lot of people prefer condition builds because it’s safer. You never know how many you’ll end up going against by yourself and a power build just doesn’t allow the kind of balance between damage and survivability like a condition build. Power builds you have to be putting out damage skills or you’re not really doing any damage, while a condition build you can use gear shield while your conditions wear the enemy down (for example). On top of that Anet wants to slow the game down (aka burst nerfs, quickness nerf) so the flow of combat will naturally favor condition builds even more.

Also, the stats/traits is a big one. Generally speaking, power builds require power, precision, toughness or vitality, and % crit damage to make a build work. All berserker is all or nothing in WvW. On the other hand, condition builds only require precision (%chance conditions), toughness or vitality, and condition damage to make a build work. And then there’s this gear set called Rabid…

I have main engi since beta and i have done power and the conditions builds. I currently running pistol/ shield conditions and support and I mainly do pve and wvw, pvp is not really my thing even thought i done a little bit of it. i will admit egni suck at stacking bleeds but i don’t think we are bad at conditions, we just do in a different way. i think most ppl just need to look at it from a different view. With the pistol man hand the each skill apply different conditions with really short CDs with 10 in bombs you can proc a burn along with that. I feel that we can proc burns, poison, and confusion all with low CD makes up for the that we suck a stacking bleeds. Its the main reason i feel that HGH builds are kinda op. also i like shield over off hand cause it offers more utility.

I kinda feel that to many ppl use these cookie cutter builds and think that all other builds are useless. i mean how many GS warriors running zerker gear out there, they have the most weapon sets in game and all you see is GS

forgive any grammar issue its late here lol

I run ostricheggs HGH Build so I am condition engineer and I love it

in mather of wvw, (organized group, 5man group sucks hard, and no1 care about them) power/crit dmg engi granade is right now best option. Condiction is cleansing to fast on meele trains etc, so pure dmg wins.

I’ve run both condition and power builds, but, since I’m a Turret Engineer and turrets don’t scale with power for some bloody reason, Condition is what I keep finding my way back to.

At the moment, I’m working on getting a hybrid Apothecary/Carrion set together, and using a pair of pistols.

LotuS.4378:

in mather of wvw, (organized group, 5man group sucks hard, and no1 care about them) power/crit dmg engi granade is right now best option. Condiction is cleansing to fast on meele trains etc, so pure dmg wins.

Did a 5man whip you?

My small group sure aren’t useless when we flank zergy zerg and take back tower you left behind you.

pve:
might stacking + power + bombs

pvp:
HgH condi (pretty much the only viable build atm)
I`ve seen Ostricheggs go for HgH + power – not my cup of tea though…

Overall power builds are not viable in tpvp imo – no damage no nothing – I used to try a flamethrower build with perma 25 stacks might + berserker + 20 points in the crit % tree… damage output was still insanely underwhelming even on FT (2) double crits

I dont play WvW but if i did i would probably spec for crowd control and escapes so probably rifle + prybar + something

RaynStargaze.6510:

pve:
might stacking + power + bombs

pvp:
HgH condi (pretty much the only viable build atm)
I`ve seen Ostricheggs go for HgH + power – not my cup of tea though…

Overall power builds are not viable in tpvp imo – no damage no nothing – I used to try a flamethrower build with perma 25 stacks might + berserker + 20 points in the crit % tree… damage output was still insanely underwhelming even on FT (2) double crits

I dont play WvW but if i did i would probably spec for crowd control and escapes so probably rifle + prybar + something

Power rifle is really the only viable thing for engi imo, especially in tPvP. Other classes will simply outclass you with Condis.

The problem with your build is that you went full power burst, relying on the rifle and the FT for your damage. Which is silly, because the FT isn’t a damaging kit, it’s a control kit, and the rifle is a split between control and damage. How you build a glass rifle build (why you’d want to for tPvP, idk) is tossing an air sigil on the rifle, grab static discharge, and use the rifle and tool kit, grab utility goggles to add to your burst, then you could either make yourself slightly survivable by grabbing a stunbreak or tossing something else on that will add more to your burst… though you shouldn’t need anything else.

For more in-depth reasoning for why condi engi’s aren’t as good as power rifle engis, refer to my previous post.

Seriously, I don’t understand why people think HgH nades builds are the only viable option for the Engi class in PvP… do you people really know your class that little? It’s kind of sad, and probably one of the contributing reasons to why PvP is failing in this game. Lack of game knowledge.

Kardiamond.6952:

LotuS.4378:

in mather of wvw, (organized group, 5man group sucks hard, and no1 care about them) power/crit dmg engi granade is right now best option. Condiction is cleansing to fast on meele trains etc, so pure dmg wins.

Did a 5man whip you?

My small group sure aren’t useless when we flank zergy zerg and take back tower you left behind you.

if you play for points, sure thing, you can makes some usless moves on towers.

For WvW, I like Conditions. But I don’t fully neglect power. The Engineer can can keep multiple conditions – particularly bleeds, poisons, burns, and confusion – on target darn near constantly. Even classes with a lot of cleansing can’t keep up with the pressure of those 4 conditions being always up over the course of the fight.

For me the HgH builds aren’t just about might, but also about having protection up for a LONG time… giving you more survivability while those conditions tick away.

Earthmonkey.4326:

Power rifle is really the only viable thing for engi imo, especially in tPvP. Other classes will simply outclass you with Condis.

The problem with your build is that you went full power burst, relying on the rifle and the FT for your damage. Which is silly, because the FT isn’t a damaging kit, it’s a control kit, and the rifle is a split between control and damage. How you build a glass rifle build (why you’d want to for tPvP, idk) is tossing an air sigil on the rifle, grab static discharge, and use the rifle and tool kit, grab utility goggles to add to your burst, then you could either make yourself slightly survivable by grabbing a stunbreak or tossing something else on that will add more to your burst… though you shouldn’t need anything else.

For more in-depth reasoning for why condi engi’s aren’t as good as power rifle engis, refer to my previous post.

Seriously, I don’t understand why people think HgH nades builds are the only viable option for the Engi class in PvP… do you people really know your class that little? It’s kind of sad, and probably one of the contributing reasons to why PvP is failing in this game. Lack of game knowledge.

I’m sure your power rifle build is great, but you can’t really say that it’s the only viable spec in high-tier PvP when in reality, more top engineers use a condition build than a power build. Maybe your build is better, I don’t know. But it’s not the “only viable thing.”

Earthmonkey.4326:

RaynStargaze.6510:

pve:
might stacking + power + bombs

pvp:
HgH condi (pretty much the only viable build atm)
I`ve seen Ostricheggs go for HgH + power – not my cup of tea though…

Overall power builds are not viable in tpvp imo – no damage no nothing – I used to try a flamethrower build with perma 25 stacks might + berserker + 20 points in the crit % tree… damage output was still insanely underwhelming even on FT (2) double crits

I dont play WvW but if i did i would probably spec for crowd control and escapes so probably rifle + prybar + something

Power rifle is really the only viable thing for engi imo, especially in tPvP. Other classes will simply outclass you with Condis.

The problem with your build is that you went full power burst, relying on the rifle and the FT for your damage. Which is silly, because the FT isn’t a damaging kit, it’s a control kit, and the rifle is a split between control and damage. How you build a glass rifle build (why you’d want to for tPvP, idk) is tossing an air sigil on the rifle, grab static discharge, and use the rifle and tool kit, grab utility goggles to add to your burst, then you could either make yourself slightly survivable by grabbing a stunbreak or tossing something else on that will add more to your burst… though you shouldn’t need anything else.

For more in-depth reasoning for why condi engi’s aren’t as good as power rifle engis, refer to my previous post.

Seriously, I don’t understand why people think HgH nades builds are the only viable option for the Engi class in PvP… do you people really know your class that little? It’s kind of sad, and probably one of the contributing reasons to why PvP is failing in this game. Lack of game knowledge.

While I run HGH power nades/rifle mostly I’m curious to which class you think outdoes us on condition damage? HGH p/p nades with 25 stacks of might that it can keep up constantly is some of the best condition damage in the entire game….

With that being said I run both HGH variants both power nades and condition nades one utilizing P/P the other utilizing rifle. Power is ran with zerker amulet and condition is ran with rabid. Both are very viable I just prefer power because I like the control options it gives.

Earthmonkey.4326:

RaynStargaze.6510:

pve:
might stacking + power + bombs

pvp:
HgH condi (pretty much the only viable build atm)
I`ve seen Ostricheggs go for HgH + power – not my cup of tea though…

Overall power builds are not viable in tpvp imo – no damage no nothing – I used to try a flamethrower build with perma 25 stacks might + berserker + 20 points in the crit % tree… damage output was still insanely underwhelming even on FT (2) double crits

I dont play WvW but if i did i would probably spec for crowd control and escapes so probably rifle + prybar + something

Power rifle is really the only viable thing for engi imo, especially in tPvP. Other classes will simply outclass you with Condis.

The problem with your build is that you went full power burst, relying on the rifle and the FT for your damage. Which is silly, because the FT isn’t a damaging kit, it’s a control kit, and the rifle is a split between control and damage. How you build a glass rifle build (why you’d want to for tPvP, idk) is tossing an air sigil on the rifle, grab static discharge, and use the rifle and tool kit, grab utility goggles to add to your burst, then you could either make yourself slightly survivable by grabbing a stunbreak or tossing something else on that will add more to your burst… though you shouldn’t need anything else.

Seriously, I don’t understand why people think HgH nades builds are the only viable option for the Engi class in PvP… do you people really know your class that little? It’s kind of sad, and probably one of the contributing reasons to why PvP is failing in this game. Lack of game knowledge.

Meh HgH is definitely good. Its a solid condi dmg build not really much better or worse than other viable condi builds imo. Condi nades in general is good.

I agree on the approach part with FT just not being a damage weapon but considering the thread title i thought the creator was referring to overall dmg output.

I agree that there are interesting node control options for engi which i think are viable – but trying to tell anyone you`re going to play anything else than HgH is kinda hard. Which is sad yea.

For the SD burst – its too predictable imo and just lacks a bit of punch and utility other burst classes bring.

I didn’t say my build in particular was the only viable build. In fact, it definitely isn’t the most powerful build (for burst or survivability) out there, but it’s perfect for sPvP, because it’s very balanced in that it allows me to stay alive, has enough damage to kill pretty much anything but a good bunker, and has a lot of control.

I’ve played Condi engi before, back when it was truely good. (before launch) and I thought that even at that time, it was still more of a pubstomp than a tPvP build. Then engi condis got nerfed (was needed) at launch and while it’s still good, and a great pubstomp option, the Rifle just performs so much better than pistol, it doubles (if not triples) your utility, without sacrificing those precious utility slots.

I don’t really like the SD burst either, you need to go far too glass to give it the kick it needs, and it becomes a very unforgiving build to play.

As far as damage goes, yeah, the condi nades and Hgh is all good and well, but that doesn’t, imo, make for a good sPvP build, especially for an Engi. Engi’s really excell at utility, and control… and you lose what makes your class so darn sexy, in order to get all that condi from the elixirs and crap. It’s also impossible to hold a point with it, it’s purely a roamer build, and holding points is crucial, and other classes make better roamers simply because they can travel between points faster.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/engineer/?2.0|4.1n.h16|0.0.0.0.0.0|1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d|1n.61.1n.61.1n.61.1n.61.1n.61.1g.61|0.u46b.0.u2ab.a6|2e.1|2b.2g.2j.2w.30|e

Rifle Power!

Effective Power 3261.83
Effective Health (EHP) 31120
Damage Reduction 39%

Critical Chance 50.57%

Cempa.5619:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/engineer/?2.0|4.1n.h16|0.0.0.0.0.0|1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d|1n.61.1n.61.1n.61.1n.61.1n.61.1g.61|0.u46b.0.u2ab.a6|2e.1|2b.2g.2j.2w.30|e

Rifle Power!

Effective Power 3261.83
Effective Health (EHP) 31120
Damage Reduction 39%

Critical Chance 50.57%

Go for the eyes might be fairly nice with that build since you’ll be critting often. Some of the other traits in firearms would work out well too. I’d consider dropping rifled barrels since you’ll be getting fairly close up with other rifle attacks and the flamethrower anyways.

Not sure how the flamethrower quite fits into this though, although the crit proccing on the flame jet would be nice, and you’d get decent damage out of the abilities. If I were to run a build like this though, I’d probably swap it out for toolkit, or perhaps another elixir.

Yamsandjams.3267:

Cempa.5619:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/engineer/?2.0|4.1n.h16|0.0.0.0.0.0|1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d|1n.61.1n.61.1n.61.1n.61.1n.61.1g.61|0.u46b.0.u2ab.a6|2e.1|2b.2g.2j.2w.30|e

Rifle Power!

Effective Power 3261.83
Effective Health (EHP) 31120
Damage Reduction 39%

Critical Chance 50.57%

Go for the eyes might be fairly nice with that build since you’ll be critting often. Some of the other traits in firearms would work out well too. I’d consider dropping rifled barrels since you’ll be getting fairly close up with other rifle attacks and the flamethrower anyways.

Not sure how the flamethrower quite fits into this though, although the crit proccing on the flame jet would be nice, and you’d get decent damage out of the abilities. If I were to run a build like this though, I’d probably swap it out for toolkit, or perhaps another elixir.

Thanks, I play P/P but been trying to figure out a Rifle power build while saving up for the complete gear overhaul so I don’t actually have play experience with this build. The only Rifle build I have played was in sPvP and it was a full out power bunker with about 0 crit and HGH which has ok DPS and can burst a little bit if played well but it actually is much better and just using elixirs on team and soaking up damage.

I run power because my guild doesn’t like condition based people in WvW.

I run condition in PvP
I run power in PvE WvW and PvP