Guild Wars 2

I’ve tried quite a few condition builds—not least because I could then justify working on getting Quip, the 2nd best legendary in the game—but they never really stuck. I kept going back to Rifle. Well, I might be late to the party, but I finally broke down and gave Condition Nades a try in sPvP and it’s both fun and effective. Thing is, I’m kind of clueless about how to approach condition builds.

Now I’m wondering how people fare with it in WvW and, to a lesser extent, in PvE. I’d be interested in hearing thoughts on how it performs, how to optimize its performance in WvW, and especially how people tend to gear for it in WvW.

Depends on what you mean by ‘condition’ build. In WvW, your only solid damage output with something like carrion will be landing prybar, shrapnel grenade, or any source of burning.

If you go with rampager’s though, it’s not so bad – but then again, at that point I’m not sure if you’d have more benefit from berserker stats or not. I will say this though, with immense emphasis – confusion is pretty OP in WvW, and prybar gives 5 stacks of it for up to 10 seconds with certain runes + pizza. 10 seconds of ‘oh crap’.

I got a conditon grenade build with a movie you can watch, you can follow the link to my Thread in the movie if you want info about the gear/runes ect.
Anyway, here we go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGWimaL9s-I
Build name: The Condition Grenadier
The trait build is this one:
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/engineer#10|10|1207|253|4603|4052|4065|30|1422|1876|1885|10|1866|0|0|0|0|0|0|10|10

I think with grenades you wanna focus on condition duration more than damage. To make those chills and poisons and blinds last. It still gains more damage out of power than condition damage though, even if you build entirely around condition damage procs from your traits.

This may be a noob question, but what advantage does something like this, or like the P/P HGH/Grenades builds I’ve seen have over 100nades? It seems on paper like 100nades has essentially the same capabilities, but with more of it’s damage front-loaded, and the opportunity for its signature burst. Does (for example) P/P HGH/Grenades or the build you posted, Amadeus, end up doing more damage overall through conditions? I feel like I must be missing something.

100nades requires you be inside your enemy for full effectiveness

spread disease, go 100nAIDS

Well Ink, a HGH build will eat up the rune set, so you can’t have 20% longer condition duration from there as a start, but also, it will eat up all your utility slots for the Elxirs (Also lock you into 30 point in Alchemy)! Not that it’s bad, because it will indeed in a longer fight end up giving more damage, but my build simply have other tools’, so if your just gonna stand on a wall throwing down grenades, then yeah, go with a grenade HGH build (which I got a setup running aswell)

But if your gonna roam around as a condition engineer and take on smaller group fights ect, the build I linked got better tools for that (Perma Vigor, Perma Swiftness, a Pull, more cripple, PRYBAR, an extra heal at 25%HP ect) WvW ain’t allways a matter of giving the most damage, also Prybar is OP, so in any condition build you should try get it in there!

Amadeus.5687:

Well Ink, a HGH build will eat up the rune set, so you can’t have 20% longer condition duration from there as a start, but also, it will eat up all your utility slots for the Elxirs (Also lock you into 30 point in Alchemy)! Not that it’s bad, because it will indeed in a longer fight end up giving more damage, but my build simply have other tools’, so if your just gonna stand on a wall throwing down grenades, then yeah, go with a grenade HGH build (which I got a setup running aswell)

But if your gonna roam around as a condition engineer and take on smaller group fights ect, the build I linked got better tools for that (Perma Vigor, Perma Swiftness, a Pull, more cripple, PRYBAR, an extra heal at 25%HP ect) WvW ain’t allways a matter of giving the most damage, also Prybar is OP, so in any condition build you should try get it in there!

Am I wrong or is the build you posted not complete? I see 30/10/0/10/0 and 20 points unused.
No runes no sigils.

Could you repost the build with runes and sigils?

Your videos are great, but I can’t find your build

Huh. the build is indeed bugged in that link, so here is a new one!
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/engineer#10|10|1207|253|4603|4052|4065|30|1876|1422|1885|10|1866|0|0|0|0|0|0|10|1015|0|0|20|1446|2270|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

You can swap out Sharpnel or Ince. Powder out for short fuse if you want.
The builds works very well in siege/larger fights by just spamming Grenades, and is quite good in roaming around cause of the Prybar (OP), and swapping into grenades for a few bleeding, poison and freezing nades. (with the 90% duration I had doing that movie the bleeding from skill 2 lasted for 22 or 24 seconds? something like that, okittensecond CD)

I use 2x Runes of Lyssa, and 4x Runes of the Madking, or Lich, or Nightmare (all 3 can work), problem is these runes are bugged since last patch, but Anet is aware and fixing it soon (hopefully)
I run full Rapid Armor, Carrion Weapons (gonna use Giver’s when those are fixed and working for 20% longer condition duration), and a mix of Rampager (2 rings) Carrion (2 trinkets) and a rapid Acsended (neck)

The Sigil I use is Superior sigil of Generosity (60% chance on crit to remove a condition on yourself and give it to the enemy – for roaming reasons) and a supeiror sigil of corrution, but you can roll with the sigil that gives bleeding on crits if you want!

Amadeus.5687:

Huh. the build is indeed bugged in that link, so here is a new one!
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/engineer#10|10|1207|253|4603|4052|4065|30|1876|1422|1885|10|1866|0|0|0|0|0|0|10|1015|0|0|20|1446|2270|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

You can swap out Sharpnel or Ince. Powder out for short fuse if you want.
The builds works very well in siege/larger fights by just spamming Grenades, and is quite good in roaming around cause of the Prybar (OP), and swapping into grenades for a few bleeding, poison and freezing nades. (with the 90% duration I had doing that movie the bleeding from skill 2 lasted for 22 or 24 seconds? something like that, okittensecond CD)

I use 2x Runes of Lyssa, and 4x Runes of the Madking, or Lich, or Nightmare (all 3 can work), problem is these runes are bugged since last patch, but Anet is aware and fixing it soon (hopefully)
I run full Rapid Armor, Carrion Weapons (gonna use Giver’s when those are fixed and working for 20% longer condition duration), and a mix of Rampager (2 rings) Carrion (2 trinkets) and a rapid Acsended (neck)

The Sigil I use is Superior sigil of Generosity (60% chance on crit to remove a condition on yourself and give it to the enemy – for roaming reasons) and a supeiror sigil of corrution, but you can roll with the sigil that gives bleeding on crits if you want!

Thank you very much, last question. Based on wiki sigil of Generosity is PvE only!

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil_of_Generosity

Yeah, but for some reason Anet think WvW = PvE, so it works in WvW! The reason they say that on the Wiki is you can’t buy that sigil in sPvP, and hence only get it outside sPvP (one of the many reasons why I don’t really do sPvP, I feel to limited in in my choices there)

Thank you once again.

@Amadeus

Niiice Video man!

I didn’t see them before, I still have a lot of work to use PP as good as you!

Was great!

Thanks for the info Amadeus, but I think you were confused about what I was asking. I wanted to know what advantage your build has over 100nades, which I understand typically uses the same kits and utilities as your build. This isn’t a rhetorical question, by the way; I actually want to know.

@Ink first of, it can beat a good player!
Jokeing aside, 100nade is a power burst build, that loose the fight when you miss the burst (at least if the player is any good, and when I discuss and make builds It’s to be used vs a good player) Not that 100nade is a bad build, it’s just to much of a one trick pony, that even send you right ontop of the enemy player!

The build I made, is a condition damage (with a mix of power) damage build, that can have a good amount of damage output, but still have room for defensive stats, so you can actually last longer in fights and won’t get one shotted. It’s easy to land burning, freeze and long amount of bleeding, which means you can kite the enemy around a lot (one of out strongest tools). Also, with the buffed Prybar, a condition damage build get’s brutal with the 5 (7 stacks of confusion with stastic shot) you can use to lock down enemy players)

It’s hard to say why it’s better, because it ain’t “better”, it depends on what you do, if you just want as much upfront power damage you can, 100nade deliver that, but you won’t last long in a fight vs a good player! If you want a more flexible build (Both statswise and skill wise), with better surviability and kiting (and another sort of gameplay), then you can go with the condition grenades!
I gues it’s a matter about how you like to play in the end?
@Kardiamond ty m8, you should just check my channel out, I keep posting new movies all the time xD

HGH does not need Might runes to be effective. It’s always nice certainly, but most Elixirs do not work the best by chain chugging them and that’s the only way you are going to generate more Might stacks in that fashion.

In my experience, Condi-Burst (Condi Nades w/ Geomancy) is really, really good in WvW. Eat some Rare Veggie Pizza and then slam a group with Confusion, x6+ bleed stacks, Burning, and Poison all the while just trying to survive after that and then pick up multiple bags. Seems very few people, unless it’s an Ele, have condi-removal out there in WvW. Makes little sense to me, but I’ll take it.

I would permanently trade my elite slot for toolkit. Can you imagine the havoc a hgh condi-grenadier could wreck if we had access to prybar without losing a utility slot.

Not to mention, it just feels more engineery.

@Ayetes I think on Boon duration runes, they simply benift so much from those runes it’s allmost a waste to not take them! but true, it’s not a “must”! But indeed condition greandes with Tool kit confusion is brutal like one * in the *

I actually question how much the entire benefit is, but I admit this is just speculation and anecdotal experience instead of anything mathematical. You give up a decent chunk of stats for splitting runes, and the 6/6 bonus can be pretty good. A simple comparison is just using Undead runes, where you get like 250+ more condi damage as a base. The extra Might duration doesn’t seem like it’d get high enough to outdo that, but then again it also gives Power even if it isn’t that big a percentage wise of the damage. Again though, it’s all speculation. I haven’t had time to do much lately, such as test that hypothesis, due to a sick daughter.

Yeah I see where you are comingfrom with Undead Runes, but personal I just think when you use Elixir B and Elixir H in your build, you can actually get insane long amount of Fury, Protection (with a bit of luck), Swiftness, Might and Retalition, and a ton of Might,which P/P and retalition also benift a lot from! Personal I like the 4 Alturism Runes and then 2Water/Monk way of doing it, simply because of the amount of boons you get! When I dueled Maskaganda he had all these boons up and running most of the time, and his retalition gave 350 damage each hit! was brutal!

Could you write a short guide how to handle mesmer as a engnieer with your build? You play both chars very well and I will never get your skilllevel but even bad played mesmer are hard to kill for me (worst setup for me). I never know should I kite or should I go short range for prybar. If I run, how long should I run. If I run I lost the real mesmer many times. I play mostly sPvP

Gonna make a topic about that Lupanic here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/PvP-movie-guides-would-you-watch-it

Then people can join in on the discussion there, so we won’t ninja this thread with something else then what It orginal was intended as! you can come over there and comment if movie gudies is something you would want to see!

Well Mask has room for Potent Elixirs, which with that extra boon duration from runes would make that pretty crazy for everything combined. Elixir B stuff though tends to be on anyway for a long time in terms of most fights, since it gets boosted by the auto-chug one at 75%.

It’d be interesting to see some good testing on it, or even math. I wish I had the time for it since it’s driving me nuts now.

Played the build today, not easy to handle 3 kits. And I sucked because of condition remove (sPvP). But the playability is great