Guild Wars 2

Throughout GW decap engi has always been somewhat mediocre, but after facerolling a bunch of matches with bunker ele/mes, I’m trying to find the best ways to beat them, and a decap engi seems like a promising thought. It seems like there is a lack of stability in these bunker builds and that vulnerability to CC is a shortcoming of the popular bunker builds. Since they rely on being able to contest points endlessly, perhaps reliably knocking them off could be a key while still being tanky enough to take some punishment.

I might try some builds tonight, but I don’t expect much success. Any ideas or thoughts on if you think this would work or not, I would love to hear. Decap engi was one of the first builds I tried in PvP and so it holds a special place for me.

Build updated 1/15:
Med Kit/Tools variant:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUnUUBdZhlcBuoCsehlKjK86KmuScZCgwjutj77G-TJBJABddBAGuMAAPAAu3fAA

Healing Turret/Inventions variant:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUnUUBdZhlcBuoCsehlKjK86KmuScZCgwjutj77G-TJBJABddBAGuMAAPAAu3fAA

Clips:
Rapid mid decap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PhVKr9_JAM

2v3 turns into a near full enemy team wipe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVd29bxzrSY

Knocking a guy around a bunch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZBZc_MnFXA

No for 2 reason : ele and other professions have access to stability so it is not so easy to take them out of a point and i don’t think you can kill a decent tempest with that build
If people rotate, usually there are condi profession or condi spammers which make you die quite easily

Long time ago Anet put obstacles at the outer nodes to prevent decap builds. Any descent player will use them against you.

What do you mean? Like the mine cart? Those have been there as long as I can remember, and don’t do a heck of a whole lot vs sustained launches.

I was trying Magi’s Decap Scrapper last night and it was actually surprisingly effective with some practice. The boon stripping provided by Throw Mine and it’s Tool Belt actually gives you some moderate boon stripping capabilities, and super speed + rifle 5 make you an excellent roamer.

Here’s my build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUnUUBdZhdeBuoCsehlKji+tj77WcZCgwL86KmuC-TJBGABA8AAS7CA8cZA03fAA

I basically just modified marauder scrapper pvp, slapped magi’s on it, since I’m taking the stim pack trait, I figured i may as well use all the precision + fury and took on crit sigils for extra survivability since I’m basically always AAing with rifle.

Basically I knock people around and snare in mid fights, or if there’s too many bunkers mid just shoot over to far to quickly decap and pressure. In solo queue, I’ve needed to go mid instead of making any risky far gambits since I’m still able to be dropped by 2 people who are persistent enough.

The amount of healing you put out via healing turret and med packs from traits and supply crate actually mean you are a fairly potent force for healing in teamfights, and constantly disabling people in AOE isn’t too shabby either.

The boon strip from mines is great stuff. Moderate condi pressure isn’t a huge deal, lots of procs to remove condis, but definitely an issue at heavy pressure.

Condition/boon/bunker meta isn’t changing no matter what build you make. It’s fundamentally tied to chrono/tempest/druid related skills that can be chained back to back and those meta builds supports everyone else around them (making other tank builds even more durable).

No amount of counter build (scrapper or otherwise) will stop it from being what it is without those other classes getting hit.

And then we have the DH, DD-Staff spike, Reaper and Scrapper issue. Poor warriors :P

Agreed with Artaz.
The PvE equiv is;
alacrity/group quickness
breakbar
boon share
combo fields
Vulnerability stacking

As long as this remains and applies to all bosses any profession that can provide these will be the ‘in group’…again, poor warriors. It is just too locked in at the moment for anything to change.

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

Agreed with Artaz.
The PvE equiv is;
alacrity/group quickness
breakbar
boon share
combo fields
Vulnerability stacking

As long as this remains and applies to all bosses any profession that can provide these will be the ‘in group’…again, poor warriors. It is just too locked in at the moment for anything to change.

A PvE question, if they removed break bars, wouldn’t that help to break up the bunker meta?

A PvP/WvW comment. Nothing will get rid of the bunker build as long as people are so easily able to do large amounts of damage to each other. You need to really run a bunker build to stand a chance and then if you go against a skilled player that maybe running the same, Its a luck of the draw moment.

As for the PvE question, I’m sorry, just curious.

KayCee.4653:

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

Agreed with Artaz.
The PvE equiv is;
alacrity/group quickness
breakbar
boon share
combo fields
Vulnerability stacking

As long as this remains and applies to all bosses any profession that can provide these will be the ‘in group’…again, poor warriors. It is just too locked in at the moment for anything to change.

A PvE question, if they removed break bars, wouldn’t that help to break up the bunker meta?

I think a more tried and true option is putting CC on diminishing returns for chaining skills over and over. It’s the only way other MMOs have brought the issue into check without break bars (or severely limited it’s chaining function) and it’s proven to work in balancing PvE (and PvP) formats.

KayCee.4653:

A PvP/WvW comment. Nothing will get rid of the bunker build as long as people are so easily able to do large amounts of damage to each other. You need to really run a bunker build to stand a chance and then if you go against a skilled player that maybe running the same, Its a luck of the draw moment.

As for the PvE question, I’m sorry, just curious.

I disagree on large spike damage being an entirely bad thing if balanced against cooldown. It actually encourages evasion/block (or other escape) builds from a reaction standpoint which is far more engaging and weighted to skill over passive spam/chaining defense order. The only issue is stealth (aka invisibility) to then react to.

Here’s what I challenge you to think through…if boon/bunker extreme builds didn’t exist what would make you win more fights/win the PvP point game? Spike damage is a far more interesting meta than both of you standing on a point and talking about the weather while you hit each other like wet noodles.

idk op, ive found that when a mes bunker has no stab, hes blocking or evading. and vice versa. ele is similar, but uses stunbreaks or projectile nullifications instead.

insanemaniac.2456:

idk op, ive found that when a mes bunker has no stab, hes blocking or evading. and vice versa. ele is similar, but uses stunbreaks or projectile nullifications instead.

Stone heart, too on Ele to prevent crits. Though that may be a wasted trait.

Yeah, every elite spec has a or multiple weaknesses, but still for some reason, people that know their specs well can compensate for them generally. Like Mesmer using stealths and gravity well and interrupts to avoid issues while blocking and evading or waiting for endurance to refill or etc.

I’ve seen a berserker (warrior in elite spec) dueling and he seemed powerful, but he was blocking most of the time while waiting for people to do their high damage skills then to do his after that. He beat a lot of people yet, has a flaw of his own where you hold back and block his burn or interrupt his burn, he’ll get downed then

One of the things I really enjoy about gw2 pvp is that every build has a beat, and if you can find the right timing their build falls apart. Seems like decap engi might have the tools to do that. Its not easy, but it IS fun. My only concern is that engi’s do have lackluster out of combat mobility no matter how you look at it. Beyond that, I think its a cool idea.

Been getting some fun footage as this build solo ranked pvp- but I’m still emerald.

Rapid mid decap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PhVKr9_JAM

2v3 turns into a near full enemy team wipe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVd29bxzrSY

I’ve been tweaking the build more and added a new favorite variant at the top of the post:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUnUUBdZhlcBuoCsehlKjK86KmuScZCgwjutj77G-TJBJABddBAGuMAAPAAu3fAA

It evolved in a couple of ways, I was curious with the med kit, tried it out, and loved my extra sustain. Upon further testing, I noticed that no “on healing” trait procced anytime with the medkit (despite wiki saying otherwise), and “on healing skills” are common throughout my build, so I tried out Tools. Tool belt skills are mostly very strong, so decreasing their cooldowns dramatically can have some pretty profound impacts in battle. Unfortunately this does restrict your aoe healing in pretty serious ways, but more aware pvp teammates will be picking up the loads of med kits you’re laying down. Double dropping a set of med packs or a double bandage heal after dodging an attack are massive.

The backpack regen, shorter tool kit CDs and constant stream of healing from med kit give you some crazy sustain, manages to pack a little more damage if you choose to, with no loss to cc. The tool belt skills are all pretty solid and enhancements to those go a long way.

What’s next?
I’ve been using Runes of Melandru since condi pressure and CC are some of the weaknesses to this build, and this counters both reasonably well. I might go back to durability now or consider something else.

I might try some sigils now that I am much more reliant on kits, and have some reliable weapon swaps. However the decent crit-rate still means that on crit stuff is reasonably effective, but I’ll mull over what else I might want. Any suggestions on either are appreciated.

i don’t think a build like that can work at higher level … at least not in solo … you choosed an amulet precision based and you have no traits that uses it . You have a low power and a low ferocity so even with precision your dps remain quite low ….

Yes, I tried to take some on crit traits/sigils to make the best out of the options I had for amulets, but as a result my 2v2 and 2v1 is pretty abysmal, however 1v1 and 1v2’s are quite good as well as larger teamfights by being able to chain CC targets into oblivion.

Now that it looks like the entire pvp landscape is changing I might need to rethink the whole thing since bunker’s will probably be much less prevalent and player will hurt a lot more.

its all about that triple knockback build

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAkGtoiNehEAAgGA

edit: doesnt work unless you listen to ludacris – get back while playing.

I’ve seen some engie decap builds that can actually sustain a bunker and pull him out of the node (not mesm tho), but are sooo bad on actual 1v1 against dps builds and 2v2 that if the enemy team rotates properly they will nullify your work

I’ve seen it tried and while it can work to some success in solo Qs, it won’t become meta in pro leagues.

You could try incorporating flame thrower to give you the air blast for CC, as well as the might stacking / stabi options you can get if you trait. It offers fire field which can be placed to make someone pay whom tries to recap. And if you stun you can hit them with the number 2 which can hurt.