Guild Wars 2

My dilemma is that, as an Engineer, I want to fill some kind of useful role. I know that we have some useful skills like Elixir R, our healing turret AoE healing blast, and supply drop. But healing power hardly works on Engie and raw DPS Engie is a bit of a stretch without getting full zerkers with rifle and blood lust. I know that grenades are amazing for PvE, and bombs are stupid good in PvE, but when fighting a player in WvW or sPvP they would have to be pretty slow to get hit by all your grenades or bombs, not to mention if they’re ranged you are pretty much kittened. So I’m thinking about making an Engineer that doesn’t really need to do tons of damage, but instead refuses to die while stacking conditions on to melt opponents. I am open to any suggestions or recommendations of other builds, and if there happens to be such a thing out there already and you’re using it please post your build. I would like to know if this dream is viable before spending cash on any gear.

I’m refining a fairly tanky condition engineer build for WvW. I don’t think it’s possible in PvP because there are just fewer options. Even in WvW I’m realizing that I cannot make myself as tanky as I would like because I just can’t fit enough regen/extra healing in a build to have a chance at infinite sustain even in a 1v1 vs. another tanky build. But I think it is possible to have incredibly powerful conditions while still having good defensive skills, a very high health pool and a good amount of toughness. I think that is as close as I can come to the build I’d like to create.

I would love to go with a more condition heavy build than a tankier build, but I just love shield. I know that P/P is the way to go for conditions but I’m having a hard time giving up shield.

Ashenpelt.5318:

But healing power hardly works on Engie.

Not sure I agree. Let’s say you have full Cleric gear.

Armor = 315 Healing Power
Jewelry = 461 Healing Power
Weapons = 180 Healing Power

That’s 956 total Healing Power added. The Healing Turret is modified by 100% of your Healing Power. So that’s 956 being directly added to your Turret. Never mind a Blast finisher in the Water field grants 1320 health modified by 20% of your HP—which in your case would be 191—for a total of 1511.

That means every time you drop your Healing Turret and detonate it, at level 80, you’re healing yourself for 7387, healing your allies for 1511, and providing 8 seconds Regeneration. On a 20-second ish cooldown. Which can similarly be overcharged and detonated, cleansing everyone’s conditions and healing everybody for another 1493 on top of the 1511 you’re already giving them.

On top of the 250+ health you’re giving them every second with Elixir-Infused Bombs, stacking Healing Power definitely “works” for the Engineer. It’s one of the most popular fractal builds we have.

Now I understand you’re looking for more tanky condition damage than support, but I just wanted to address this misconception that Cleric gear is a waste for Engineers. It works best on Guardians because their stuff is mostly raw healing, especially with an AHEM-type build, but we do plenty of raw healing ourselves, too.

I think you can use shield just fine in a tanky condition build. I’m switching back and forth between p/p and p/s right now and can’t decide which one is better overall—some duels/situations seem to be better with shield, some with offhand pistol.

I am using a standard 30/10/0/30/0 trait distribution but am taking different traits than most. Forceful explosions, as well as incendiary powder and grenadier in explosives; in firearms, either reduced pistol cooldown or swiftness on crit, depending on if I’m using two pistols or p/s. In alchemy, auto elixir S, 409, and either protection injection or vigor on swiftness (if I’m using swiftness on crit in firearms).

Utilities are grenades, bombs, and elixir S. It’s true that it’s difficult to actually hit people with grenades and bombs. That’s why I’m still considering taking offhand pistol instead of p/s and perma-vigor—it’s just easier to hit people with blowtorch. On the other hand, fire bomb has a pretty big radius with forceful explosions and stacks a ton of burning, and you’ve got incendiary powder as well.

No HGH because there’s not room for enough elixirs to make it useful. I’m using runes of altruism with med kit, and sigil of battle to make up for a little of the lost might. If you go p/s and bombs, you can get two blast finishers in your fire field as well.

You can afford to be more tanky because you don’t need as much precision due to permanent fury. So I’ve got some vitality mixed in with rabid gear, and I’m planning to pick up the CD>tuf>vit>prec ascended amulet (I’m really liking the build so I think I’m gonna go ahead and invest heavily in it).

Phineas Poe.3018:

Ashenpelt.5318:

But healing power hardly works on Engie.

Not sure I agree. Let’s say you have full Cleric gear.

Armor = 315 Healing Power
Jewelry = 461 Healing Power
Weapons = 180 Healing Power

That’s 956 total Healing Power added. The Healing Turret is modified by 100% of your Healing Power. So that’s 956 being directly added to your Turret. Never mind a Blast finisher in the Water field grants 1320 health modified by 20% of your HP—which in your case would be 191—for a total of 1511.

That means every time you drop your Healing Turret and detonate it, at level 80, you’re healing yourself for 7387, healing your allies for 1511, and providing 8 seconds Regeneration. On a 20-second ish cooldown. Which can similarly be overcharged and detonated, cleansing everyone’s conditions and healing everybody for another 1493 on top of the 1511 you’re already giving them.

On top of the 250+ health you’re giving them every second with Elixir-Infused Bombs, stacking Healing Power definitely “works” for the Engineer. It’s one of the most popular fractal builds we have.

Now I understand you’re looking for more tanky condition damage than support, but I just wanted to address this misconception that Cleric gear is a waste for Engineers. It works best on Guardians because their stuff is mostly raw healing, especially with an AHEM-type build, but we do plenty of raw healing ourselves, too.

Oh and I don’t deny that. I used that exact strategy for some time while doing dungeons, but I just didn’t feel that it was working too well. I didn’t really go too far into clerics because I asked before about healing power on engie and got so much negative feedback that I decided to scrap the idea. I will indeed give it another shot but I’m still torn between conditioneer and tanky bomby engie. I suppose what I was trying to say in my first post is that I would love a mid-ground between conditions and healing.

Ashenpelt.5318:

I didn’t really go too far into clerics because I asked before about healing power on engie and got so much negative feedback that I decided to scrap the idea.

Eff. That. Noise.

A lot of the people around here have absolutely no clue what they’re talking about. Sometimes you really just have to try things out yourself.

I know exotic/ascended gear is very expensive or hard to get, and sPvP trinkets are not 1:1 in stat distribution to PvE, but it sometimes fighting Mist Golems is a good way to test the effectiveness of a build, never mind just doing some simple math. All the skill coefficients for Power, Condition Damage, and Healing Power are well documented and known at this point.

Oh yeah, another thing I love about Cleric’s gear is that it gives Power, Toughness, and Healing Power. I’ve put traits as 30/10/30 so that 5% of my toughness and 10% of my HP are also added to my power, so not only am I very tanky but I can also do massive damage up close. With the healing turret and elixir R I’m pretty satisfied with being a key point in any dungeon run, but if I ever get a ton of money I’m going to make a separate set for a possible condition engie, maybe with some HGH. Thanks a bunch for you help.

If you want to go for Condition Damage and save some gold, I recommend Rabid gear. A full set with jewelry can be purchased with Karma in Orr from different vendors.