Guild Wars 2

Hey,

Recently started playing again and let me state that i’m 100% awful. I’ve been doing a lot of pvp trying to get a grasp on things but i just can’t seem to get things to ‘click’. I try out wvw but it seems to be even tougher there.

So far i have zero issues with fighting engineers, they die super fast and don’t seem to do much damage to me but everyother class appears to be an issue.

I need tips on fighting mesmers, they justually stealth up behind me put out 3 clones and i’m dead before i can do anything. If i do manage to survive that, they stealth and then hit me again and i’m dead.

Thiefs basically do the same thing, come out of stealth, put my skills on a super long cd and kill me before that ends.

Guardians seem to block every attack, net shot, overcharged, even when i use the throw elixir x, they just never get hit by it and are in my face 24/7. I usually get them down maybe 10-15% hp and by that time they completely dunk me.

I know i’m bad, not much more needs to be said on that. I’m going to continue playing to try to learn but if you guys have any tips i would greatly appreciate them.

Shattermes have a super strength wich is their surprise attack, so if they are invis, stay on your toolkit and if you see the mirror blade, use your block (mirror blade is unblockable i know, but it’s the innitiate of their burst shatter). After that they are revealed and are vulnerable. A shattermes has most of the time no condi cleanse and a good junk of those will force them to retreat or fight in the dangerzone. As power (marauder~) engi it’s hard to counterattack, since they are full of stunbreaker and are slippery like an eal. Not sure what to do as power aswell. :/

I can feel you for feeling weak as an engi atm snce there have been lots of changes to our traits and setups, but adjusting your play will surely lead to some nice results.
I play Marauder engi in PvP and Knights/berserker in WvW and have mained this class since i started playing 2 years ago.
The setup is elixir s toolkit and grenades with traited mortar in WvW and Elixr x in PvP.
The main trick to playing the engi this way is to get your combos down and retreat when you have to. Toolkit and rifle can setup your grenade barrage pretty well and following up with imobs or chaining knockbacks is key to succeding with this build.
You also get lots of ways to disengage or prolong the fight. Since the healing turret has a pretty low cooldown and you can get yourself up with blasting our jumping through your waterfields you can often come on top of an engagement when you can effectively los our kite the enemy. Direct engagement will almost never work, except if you can get of your combo from stealth of unepecting/ bad players.
The matchups are rather decent for the most part. You have decent chances against warriors guards rangers and thiefs if you can negate their burst and counter them when you get the chance. Guards can get kired fairly well if you time your blocks and invul for their meditations. On warriors you need to watch out for the right tells and save your dodges. Rangers can wreck you with their burst and taunt trait if you aren’t careful so save you elixir s for these o kitten situations. And thiefs can be handles fairly well with your block and by throwing your grenades where you think the thief is hiding. Mesmers Necros and Eles are pretty hard matchups depening of what build they run. Power necros can be dealth with but against condi or cele builds you will have a hard time. The base advice i can give you if to keep up the pressure and cc so that they don’t get any momentum. Against mesmers you need to stay patient and time your blocks. Force them to use their cooldowns on your grenades and low cd burst, then when they have used their distortion and blink you can go hard. Granted condi mesmers are very tough to beat on any profession so you might want to straight up disenage if you see that you can’t win. Against eles i suggest you try to burst them down out of stealth and if that fails just disenage. You probalby won’t win against a competent one so save your time for when you can +1 them and take them out quickly.
All in all know your matchups, disegange a loosing fight and get your combos down.

Hope this helped.

Not a pro, but I have some tips to share. This will be from a condi perspective as that is the type of build I usually play.

General: Always practice map awareness, where your team is and where they are dying. Don’t walk into outnumbered fights. When you know an ally just died, they should run right by your home point when the spawn so you don’t have to stand there at that time. When you get more advanced start paying attention to when the enemy is dying because they will be coming out of their spawn. If you wipe the other team it’s a bad time to be standing on the far point, for example. Also it depends on your build but almost every time I PvP I try to play “cautiously aggressive”. Pick your spots, don’t charge in blindly but go for the kill if you have it. Whenever I find myself on a death streak it’s because I’m not being careful. Don’t play into your opponents build if you can help it. These guidelines will help you far more than any specific profession 1v1 advice.

Mesmer: Very powerful right now. The best you can do is play very defensive (especially when they stealth) and try to survive their burst. They will CC you like crazy so isn’t not as simple as just dodging. If you can do that you have a decent shot of outlasting them because they don’t have great cleanse, but it’s an uphill battle.

Ele: The OP profession at the moment. If you face a D/D Ele, just assume they’re running the meta Cele build and try not to fight them unless you outnumber them. If you have Flamethrower try to save Incendiary Powder (and for that matter ALL your condi burst) until they use water attunement. Once they do that you have ~10-15s opening where they don’t have lots of cleanse. Still some, but not a lot. All things being equal you won’t beat a lot of Celeles, so don’t try if numbers are even just leave them alone (I hate saying that trust me, but it’s true).

Necro: We actually do better against Necro nowadays I think. Start by applying the least damaging conditions first, because once they have 3 they have a trait which will automatically send them back to you on their next crit. Assume they use this and save all your nasty condi burst until after that procs or they will come right back onto you. They may also have a signet that does this, but you can’t hold off too long because they have 2 health bars you have to burn. If you run shield it becomes a much easier fight because you can reflect a couple DS attacks or even Lich Form back at them which is usually enough to turn the fight in your favor completely. All in all I think Necros are very fun and even fights right now.

Thief: Always been weak to Engi, they’re a little better against us now but not significantly. Since they can’t time their CC very well with their Basilisk venom, just wait until they spend it all then break CC. Meaning they’ll use all the charges in 2-3 attacks so don’t break after the first one. One good condi bomb and there’s really not much they can do. They spike a lot for sure so always pay attention to how many Thieves the other team has and where they are on the map. Always be ready for them to jump you. I find that if I am ready for them I rarely lose to them. If they catch me unawares then they can kill me so just pay attention when they are around.

Engi: Pretty self explanatory if you’re in this thread, and you said you don’t have problems anyways.

Ranger: They are surprisingly tough, but their burst is very predictable (knockback into Rapid Fire, usually with Quickness) and their GS attacks are pretty telegraphed. If you can break the knockback fast enough and throw up a shield reflect they’ll usually take half if not all the Rapid Fire because 1) they don’t expect it and 2) with Quickness it’s too fast for them to react. Once this happens you’re near full and they’re under half so it’s pretty easy from there. Good ones will stealth a lot and harrass you with pet. It becomes similar to a Mesmer fight then, try to go defensive and outlast their stealth.

Guardian: Guards are pretty even fights as well. Always start with an auto attack to break their Aegis. Poison early and often. If they are a burn Guard you have to be VERY proactive with your condi cleanse. You don’t have enough, but they are really only putting burn on you so clear it as often as possible.

Warrior: Attacks are easily telegraphed like Ranger. Recognize what weapon they have and plan accordingly. Hammer > dodge/blind slow telegraphed CC. GS > kite as much as you can. Sword > They are going to bleed you a lot. Shield > They may reflect your attacks so be aware.

Thanks everyone for the tips. The build i’m running is

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Engineer_-_Static_Discharge
(Note i did not see that BIG message at the top until just now..)

I was previously running

http://www.wolfineer.com/static-discharge-burster/

I just had a look at the marauder build and i’m not a fan of the grenades. Is my build just not viable? If so, is there some variation of it or am i kinda stuck with the marauder build? I recently just got all of my beserker gear from WvW, so that kinda throws a wrench into things.

I was having major issues with necros beacuse of that whole double hp bar but then i read about toss elixir x that takes them out of that form and that makes it pretty even for me to fight.

My issue with theives is they put everything i have on cooldown and i’m not sure how to react. I don’t think i have a way to get out of that, even elixir s goes on cooldown. When it finally comes off, i’m usually dead or close to it.

I’m honestly dying inside because you said guardians are an even fight haha, i feel so bad. Thats the class that makes me feel like i have the worst healing in the game, if i do manage to get them low (doesn’t happen often), they go right back up to full and block everything i throw at them.

I think those builds that i picked don’t have many conditions to apply? I’m honestly not sure

What i usually try to do is net shot (never lands) so i overcharge and then try to magnet then prybar. All while blowing my toolbelt skills on cooldown. This is like the ideal opener but its very rare i get to do that. Part of me wants to keep my distance to avoid as much as possible but my hardest hitting skills (blunderbuss/prybar) require me to be close in and if that happens i’m usually dead pretty fast to the telegraphs

Thanks again guys, this has been awesome so far

The best thing you can use for both Mesmer and Thief is utility goggles. The utility goggles breaks you free from stuns such as basilisk venom, grants you fury and blindness immunity, and gives you a skill that reveals them for 6 seconds. The skill also stacks about 10 stacks of vunerability on them too allowing for you smart crit based people to quickly end them within the 6 seconds of reveal. If you are condi based it will take a bit longer.

A tip I would have is that in the new meta it seems there are a good many who can down you in a second if they get the jump on you. Generally they need to be close to do this. We are now more squishy than we ever were with the effectiveness of condis and the new burst meta. Running into mele range for any prolonged period of time usualy means death to someone new, and these days even to the hardened sorts. Even the quickest dash to drop the heavy hitting close range rifle skills or acid bomb can leave you with half your health.

I would advise trying to resist the temptation to leap right into the fray on point. and to try to accelerate wins too quickly by closing to use your big hitter like blunderbus and the jump shot to early in the fight.

We can be effective holding medium to long range can be and forcing your opponent to come to you. Even an auto attack from rifle can be surprisingly effective if traited right.

You can be prepared when they do try to close range with things like acid bomb (to reopen it), knockback to escape entangle (but have a stun break to get right back up), or set your mortar tool belt skill off above yourself, or a flamethrower fire line in front and step on either side of it when they attack.

Also when someone is trying to close range you can lead them with mortar fields. Then use net or overcharged shot to stick them in it.

Don’t underestimae the power of slow, your bouncing green ball from the elixir gun can really turn the tide in allowing you to keep the range you like.

I run a marauder build so even my weaker attacks mount up over time and with runes of strength my condis go from about 280 (with just the precision delivery trait) to 800 or so (while being a full power build). this makes my condis something that can’t be ignored, in fact its quite amusing to run away while drinking potions and watch the guy chasing you fall over dead when your condis start ticking for more.

Hopefully a little helpful.

Above all an engi needs to be always moving and not stick in any one place (with my build). So pick your fights and keep moving.

I think one of my big problems was combos. Someone tell me if im wrong, but i didn’t use any. I just swapped out the elixir x for the motar kit and i’ve started to lay a field before i engage or if i try to back up i put down the frost field thingy. I feel like i’m doing better but it’s tough to gague.

Another big problem i discovered is once i get someone on the ground, then what? I have a very hard time securing kills. I try the toss elixir s to stealth, but usually the class still gets away and back to his team (engineers are no problem).

You guys have been such a tremendous help

Sobin.5947:

Thanks everyone for the tips. The build i’m running is

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Engineer_-_Static_Discharge
(Note i did not see that BIG message at the top until just now..)

I was previously running

http://www.wolfineer.com/static-discharge-burster/

First off, regardless of what variation you’re running a Static Discharge build is NOT user friendly. It is an advanced build because of how squishy you are with limited defense.

I just had a look at the marauder build and i’m not a fan of the grenades. Is my build just not viable? If so, is there some variation of it or am i kinda stuck with the marauder build? I recently just got all of my beserker gear from WvW, so that kinda throws a wrench into things.

Anytime you say something like “I just don’t like to use _” followed by “is my build good anyways” the answer is usually no. There’s a reason we’re all tired of grenade kit. It’s really good almost regardless of what build you use.

Still, with that said you can run other builds, HGH is hot at the moment. Any weapon setup (P/P, P/S, Rifle) with Elixirs H, any, any, Elixir Gun, Elixir X is a pretty noob friendly and effective build. Pairing Alchemy/Inventions with Firearms or Explosives is a very defensive training wheels type build where not much can go wrong.

My issue with theives is they put everything i have on cooldown and i’m not sure how to react. I don’t think i have a way to get out of that, even elixir s goes on cooldown. When it finally comes off, i’m usually dead or close to it.

Any stun locks you out of your skills and makes it look like they are on cooldown. However you always are able to use your stun break (if it’s not already on cooldown of course). Even Basilisk venom which “turns you to stone” allows you to break out of it.

I’m honestly dying inside because you said guardians are an even fight haha, i feel so bad. Thats the class that makes me feel like i have the worst healing in the game, if i do manage to get them low (doesn’t happen often), they go right back up to full and block everything i throw at them.

Remember that was my particular build, play style, and experience. One Engineer could never have problems with Mesmers and another may rarely even be able to hit them. It’s experience mostly with contributions from your build. Learn what their different blocks mean (heal, focus, mace all have duration blocking) and keep poison on as much as possible. Remember there’s no shame in learning what build another profession has and then avoiding them for the rest of the match if it’s a hard counter to yours.

I think those builds that i picked don’t have many conditions to apply? I’m honestly not sure

Not only is Static Discharge a pretty advanced level build but you’re right it doesn’t apply meaningful conditions.

What i usually try to do is net shot (never lands) so i overcharge and then try to magnet then prybar. All while blowing my toolbelt skills on cooldown. This is like the ideal opener but its very rare i get to do that. Part of me wants to keep my distance to avoid as much as possible but my hardest hitting skills (blunderbuss/prybar) require me to be close in and if that happens i’m usually dead pretty fast to the telegraphs

Don’t start with Net Shot. 1) Terrain can make it miss more often than is necessary. 2) Many professions have automatic triggering traits or skills that are off of cooldown when you fight them. This means your first attack will trigger any of those “incoming condition” or “taking damage” traits. Additionally Guardians will have block up which will negate Net Shot.

Overcharged Shot > Magnet > Pry Bar is a good combo.

Your big hitting skills (you forgot Jump Shot) are indeed best in close range but that doesn’t mean you stay in close range to use them. Use the combos like Magnet > Pry Bar and Overcharged Shot > Jump Shot to make sure they land while you are in minimal danger.

Sobin.5947:

I think one of my big problems was combos. Someone tell me if im wrong, but i didn’t use any. I just swapped out the elixir x for the motar kit and i’ve started to lay a field before i engage or if i try to back up i put down the frost field thingy. I feel like i’m doing better but it’s tough to gague.

Solo combos in PvP is a pretty advanced tactic, I would just use your skills normally and practice the more general PvP strategies and awareness until you feel more comfortable.

Another big problem i discovered is once i get someone on the ground, then what? I have a very hard time securing kills. I try the toss elixir s to stealth, but usually the class still gets away and back to his team (engineers are no problem).

This is another general tactic I didn’t mention but I’m glad you brought it up. This depends wholly on what profession you downed and the immediate environment. If you are being attacked by someone else you likely won’t have a chance to stomp unless you use elixir S. If someone tries to revive them use CC. If they have Stability then just put as much poison (slower healing = slower revive) and damage as you can to not only make it harder to revive but damage the reviver and sometimes even down them.

Each Profession also has general guidelines of how to treat them when they are downed, notably based on the #2 skill of their downed bar. Downed state management tips are something pretty widely available outside of the Engi specific forum.

Adamantium.3682:

Sobin.5947:

Thanks everyone for the tips. The build i’m running is

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Engineer_-_Static_Discharge
(Note i did not see that BIG message at the top until just now..)

I was previously running

http://www.wolfineer.com/static-discharge-burster/

First off, regardless of what variation you’re running a Static Discharge build is NOT user friendly. It is an advanced build because of how squishy you are with limited defense.

I just had a look at the marauder build and i’m not a fan of the grenades. Is my build just not viable? If so, is there some variation of it or am i kinda stuck with the marauder build? I recently just got all of my beserker gear from WvW, so that kinda throws a wrench into things.

Anytime you say something like “I just don’t like to use _” followed by “is my build good anyways” the answer is usually no. There’s a reason we’re all tired of grenade kit. It’s really good almost regardless of what build you use.

Still, with that said you can run other builds, HGH is hot at the moment. Any weapon setup (P/P, P/S, Rifle) with Elixirs H, any, any, Elixir Gun, Elixir X is a pretty noob friendly and effective build. Pairing Alchemy/Inventions with Firearms or Explosives is a very defensive training wheels type build where not much can go wrong.

My issue with theives is they put everything i have on cooldown and i’m not sure how to react. I don’t think i have a way to get out of that, even elixir s goes on cooldown. When it finally comes off, i’m usually dead or close to it.

Any stun locks you out of your skills and makes it look like they are on cooldown. However you always are able to use your stun break (if it’s not already on cooldown of course). Even Basilisk venom which “turns you to stone” allows you to break out of it.

I’m honestly dying inside because you said guardians are an even fight haha, i feel so bad. Thats the class that makes me feel like i have the worst healing in the game, if i do manage to get them low (doesn’t happen often), they go right back up to full and block everything i throw at them.

Remember that was my particular build, play style, and experience. One Engineer could never have problems with Mesmers and another may rarely even be able to hit them. It’s experience mostly with contributions from your build. Learn what their different blocks mean (heal, focus, mace all have duration blocking) and keep poison on as much as possible. Remember there’s no shame in learning what build another profession has and then avoiding them for the rest of the match if it’s a hard counter to yours.

I think those builds that i picked don’t have many conditions to apply? I’m honestly not sure

Not only is Static Discharge a pretty advanced level build but you’re right it doesn’t apply meaningful conditions.

What i usually try to do is net shot (never lands) so i overcharge and then try to magnet then prybar. All while blowing my toolbelt skills on cooldown. This is like the ideal opener but its very rare i get to do that. Part of me wants to keep my distance to avoid as much as possible but my hardest hitting skills (blunderbuss/prybar) require me to be close in and if that happens i’m usually dead pretty fast to the telegraphs

Don’t start with Net Shot. 1) Terrain can make it miss more often than is necessary. 2) Many professions have automatic triggering traits or skills that are off of cooldown when you fight them. This means your first attack will trigger any of those “incoming condition” or “taking damage” traits. Additionally Guardians will have block up which will negate Net Shot.

Overcharged Shot > Magnet > Pry Bar is a good combo.

Your big hitting skills (you forgot Jump Shot) are indeed best in close range but that doesn’t mean you stay in close range to use them. Use the combos like Magnet > Pry Bar and Overcharged Shot > Jump Shot to make sure they land while you are in minimal danger.

Sobin.5947:

I think one of my big problems was combos. Someone tell me if im wrong, but i didn’t use any. I just swapped out the elixir x for the motar kit and i’ve started to lay a field before i engage or if i try to back up i put down the frost field thingy. I feel like i’m doing better but it’s tough to gague.

Solo combos in PvP is a pretty advanced tactic, I would just use your skills normally and practice the more general PvP strategies and awareness until you feel more comfortable.

Another big problem i discovered is once i get someone on the ground, then what? I have a very hard time securing kills. I try the toss elixir s to stealth, but usually the class still gets away and back to his team (engineers are no problem).

This is another general tactic I didn’t mention but I’m glad you brought it up. This depends wholly on what profession you downed and the immediate environment. If you are being attacked by someone else you likely won’t have a chance to stomp unless you use elixir S. If someone tries to revive them use CC. If they have Stability then just put as much poison (slower healing = slower revive) and damage as you can to not only make it harder to revive but damage the reviver and sometimes even down them.

Each Profession also has general guidelines of how to treat them when they are downed, notably based on the #2 skill of their downed bar. Downed state management tips are something pretty widely available outside of the Engi specific forum.

I’m starting to get that feeling that its an advanced build, only reason i’m sticking with it is cause for some reason i like it, that’s kinda why i was asking if it’s good or not. If it wasn’t a good build, of course i’d like to switch off of it.

What’s the benefit of the grenade kit? I dropped my elixir X for mortar kit thinking that would supplement the grenade kit because in my mind it was only used for combos (I could be wrong here).

I’m not quite sure if it’s been helping, or my past arenas i’ve just been playing against people who are just as bad as me, but switching to the mortar seems to help. I’m not sure how it helps, but i just feel like it does haha. I try to drop the mortar 3 (freeze field thingy), maybe having my enemy slower makes a noticeable difference for me.

You mention poison and healing, is there a connection? Like do higher poison stacks mean slower healing, or were you only talking about killing the guy reviving as fast as possible?

Lastly, the light field on the mortar. I could use an explanation of how that works. I watched some videos of people dropping it on a downed player, so i basically just copied that. I know it gives blindness but i’m not quite sure on the mechanics.
If i have the field on a down player and he tries to hit me, will he miss his first attack or will every attack miss as long as the field is up? Also, what about an enemy shooting in at me, will his attacks miss?

Thanks guys, i know i’m a pain in the kitten but this helps me soo much.

Edit I’m stupid, says it right there on the poison description that it reduces healing effectiveness

I seldom stomp, usually just acid bomb downed opponents, drop the line of fire thing on them and then shoot. If an enemy comes by to res them, I let them stand in the fields I’ve made by mortar, then I use rifle and overcharged shot the downed player.

Another tip is when on point and having downed someone on point, use overcharged shot to knock them out of the circle. Then stand on point and just shoot with AA, or some mortar fun. It increases your cap speed.

I also have always disliked gernades, currently use flame thrower, Elixir and might potion while having rifle as my main weapon and mortar as my elite. I run firearms, explosives, and alchemy. I use marauder and either runes of strenght or sometimes I play with pack / eagle. With might up my conditions are actually reasonably effective (pinpoint dist helps). I die very very quickly when caught unawares. This build is extremely squishy, though actually has a lot of condition removing options so its more pure damage I fear.

About the mortar fields, it blinds every second. But thats also in the skill discription. All the other mortar fields work the same way. Initial damage just once but the field effect gets applied every second. Also the finishers gets applied to the oldest field you have set down. For example if you want to heal up against a war or other close combat fighter you place down your water field then the blind field on top of it. Then use the mortar toolbelt blast which will heal you up twice by comboing with your oldest field, that is the waterfield.

Grenades are pretty great Imo. They can be used offensively with their toolbelt skill which does loads of damage and can be used twice with your trait. You also get many usefull condis that can be used both offensively and defensively. Their best use imo is that they can spammed while running in any direction you choose. If you look into your options you can bind a key to looking behind you as long as you hold it. This works greatly when kiting your opponent. You can stay offensive and defensive at the same time. Its also great for hitting stealthed opponents and killing mesmer clones/ other minions.

Pride.1734:

About the mortar fields, it blinds every second. But thats also in the skill discription. All the other mortar fields work the same way. Initial damage just once but the field effect gets applied every second. Also the finishers gets applied to the oldest field you have set down. For example if you want to heal up against a war or other close combat fighter you place down your water field then the blind field on top of it. Then use the mortar toolbelt blast which will heal you up twice by comboing with your oldest field, that is the waterfield.

Grenades are pretty great Imo. They can be used offensively with their toolbelt skill which does loads of damage and can be used twice with your trait. You also get many usefull condis that can be used both offensively and defensively. Their best use imo is that they can spammed while running in any direction you choose. If you look into your options you can bind a key to looking behind you as long as you hold it. This works greatly when kiting your opponent. You can stay offensive and defensive at the same time. Its also great for hitting stealthed opponents and killing mesmer clones/ other minions.

Thanks for the response, i had no idea about the oldest field being the active one but that was actually one of my questions.

So it sounds like i’m just being stubborn when it comes to grenades, I’ll give it a try. Does anyone have a build that would work with beserker gear or would i have to get all new gear?

I just tried the water and light field followed by the mortar toolkit and i couldn’t get it to heal me, so i took the trait that extends the duration of the fields and i can get 1 blast in the water field and one blast in the light field, but not 2 heals

This is what i love about this game, the way that combos work is just so jawesomely jawesome

edit What is the amount of healing based off of, the field or the finisher?

edit2 so do overlaping fields both provide benefits?

Here is my WvW build. Great for zerg as well as roaming.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUlUUh6rYJXwELQ7FLTGk4zKQA+2Xyb+4HqQ8B-T1hFABDcBAA4BAYkyvR2f4MdAHq+TVKBJFggKjA-w

Berserker works just as well but its harder the less defense you take. If you can, replace some jewely or armor with knights / soldiers.

The field combo works on both strikes. If you get a light field on the second strike then you have delayed your combo and the waterfield has expired before the second strike.

Iirc the heal from the blast is a set amount of about 1,5k.

Overlapping fields tick for their set duration anyway. So the light field would still tick blinds while your waterfield keeps ticking heals. So yes but you can only combo one at a time.

Edit: This is also very usefull in PvE where you usually play with flamethrower greades and mortar. simply set down the flame thrower field first and the blind field after so you and your party can blast might in combat while blinding the mobs arround you.

Here is the build I use. I exclusively WvW. My play style is pretty all over, I do a lot of roaming/small man, but I do like zerg busting/zerg diving. When at the front of a zerg I’ll usually pop X and dive right in (I may come out of tornado early) to disrupt as much as possible. It’s a perplexity build so it’s all about getting off as many interrupts as possible. Gear shield, Magnetic Inversion and Static Shield are important as well both for mitigating as well as interupts. Rocket boots for mobility and disengaging. Elixir C for condition bombs. When disengaging to heal, I’ll usually then try and snipe the commander with a pull. I find it a lot of fun, and super survivable.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqelcThCsYJXwvLQ+FLTGU42TWYFfWBCw46bfEA-TFBZwAFV/R++DwUCCQ5XAAEAm5MP6RP6RLFggKjA-w

Did you make certain to always take the Alchemist Tree for the Alchemy traits. Alchemist will be one of Engi’s main source of condition cleansing.

EdwinLi.1284:

Did you make certain to always take the Alchemist Tree for the Alchemy traits. Alchemist will be one of Engi’s main source of condition cleansing.

Yea, i have alchemy right now. Before i was running explosives, inventions and tools

So if i drop my rifle turret for grenades, i see my traits don’t really have to change but what about my elite skill? Should i keep mortar or use grenades since they seem to do the same thing and swap to elixir x?

Also, if i drop my rocket turret i lose a blast finisher so i can no longer get a minor heal from healing turret toolkit use and rifle turret explosion

edit so i seem to be having an issue with switching kits. It seems like sometimes it switches instantly and othertimes i gotta mash the button for a second or 2. Is there some interal cooldown that is preventing me?

I’m wondering when you guys use the drop kit keybind (~) vs pressing the kit button again, to switch back to your main weapon.

Drop kit / weapon switch is bound to my 3rd mouse button anyway, so i never use the kit button to switch out of a kit…
Btw… there’s a 1sec CD when you switch to a kit, but no CD to drop kit. So you can either press a kit button, wait 1sec, then press the kit again or use kit button + weapon switch to switch to a kit and back in less than 0.2 secs (useful when triggering streamlined kits for example).

That’s what i’ve noticed, i can switch much faster when using drop kit. However, i’ve also noticed that for things like gear shield, i can hit the kit button again and still be blocking but if i use drop kit the shield drops as well. Didn’t know if there were other circumstances like that

Just dodge mirror blade and don’t facetank shatters.
Also the soldier build is pretty much immortal.

robertul.3679:

Just dodge mirror blade and don’t facetank shatters.
Also the soldier build is pretty much immortal.

Yeah, it is absurdly resilient for an engineer build. If I did not hate rifle so much, I would probably play it more.

Sobin.5947:

Hey,

Recently started playing again and let me state that i’m 100% awful. I’ve been doing a lot of pvp trying to get a grasp on things but i just can’t seem to get things to ‘click’. I try out wvw but it seems to be even tougher there.

So far i have zero issues with fighting engineers, they die super fast and don’t seem to do much damage to me but everyother class appears to be an issue.

I need tips on fighting mesmers, they justually stealth up behind me put out 3 clones and i’m dead before i can do anything. If i do manage to survive that, they stealth and then hit me again and i’m dead.

Thiefs basically do the same thing, come out of stealth, put my skills on a super long cd and kill me before that ends.

Guardians seem to block every attack, net shot, overcharged, even when i use the throw elixir x, they just never get hit by it and are in my face 24/7. I usually get them down maybe 10-15% hp and by that time they completely dunk me.

I know i’m bad, not much more needs to be said on that. I’m going to continue playing to try to learn but if you guys have any tips i would greatly appreciate them.

Tips for mesmers:
Tab targeting us generally pretty strong for targeting the correct mesmer and making sure you have the right mesmer targeted asap is crucial to having a fighting chance. Also look for key indicators like unique boons/buffs on the real mesmer as well as irregular movement. With enough practice, you’ll get a good feel for when to pop cooldowns and when to push offensively.

Tips for thieves:
A good thief won’t encounter you in a 1 v 1. They’ll +1 your 1 v 1 with someone else. If there’s a thief on the enemy team, keep an eye on where they are on the map and keep your camera moving during fights to give visibility to your peripheral. If you see a thief coming your way and stealthing, get ready to pop something like gear shield and run to allies.
If you do engage in a 1 v 1 with a thief, just think about where the thief will be going when they stealth and use your AoEs to pressure them. Also watch for them to pop basilisk venom. You can see this by the buff icon when they’re targetted. Block/invuln/blind/evade when you see this or at least keep a stun break ready.

Tip for Guardians:
Don’t pop your offensive skills early on a guard. Most medi guards will start off pushing heavy dps on you with their focus shield up. Play defensive while they pop these cooldowns. Once you’ve seen Shield of Wrath (their focus block with that shows shields around them) and their heal Shelter, they’re mostly free of blocks and have survived their burst, turn to go offensive. Basically, don’t be afraid to blow defensive cooldowns early, but save your snares and big damage for after their burst and shields.

If you go offensive too early, you may think that you almost killed them by getting them to 10-15%, but they likely had another defensive cooldown for when they went below 10%.

I think i’m starting to get better. I’m recognizing the skills from other classes, or starting to. That tip about waiting out guardians till they pop their shield seems to help a ton. Theives still seem to wreck me, 10k backstabs, 5k cloak and daggers = dead me in 2 hits.

I also just fought an elementalist who always seemed to have 9 stacks of stability on him and i could not figure out what to do. He hurt like a demon and there was no way i could stop him. I tried running but he was always way quicker than me =/

Sobin.5947:

I think i’m starting to get better. I’m recognizing the skills from other classes, or starting to. That tip about waiting out guardians till they pop their shield seems to help a ton. Theives still seem to wreck me, 10k backstabs, 5k cloak and daggers = dead me in 2 hits.

I also just fought an elementalist who always seemed to have 9 stacks of stability on him and i could not figure out what to do. He hurt like a demon and there was no way i could stop him. I tried running but he was always way quicker than me =/

For thieves, you have to dodge their Basilisks, else you waste your Elixir S to avoid their initial burst. Afterwards just poke with Hip Shot+Surprise Shot until they waste their shadowstep. You can then blow maybe ~half~ your burst pretty freely, to force them into Refuge. When you get used to it, you can usually predict their Refuge and channel Magnet or OC Shot to get em out then finish with the rest of your burst. It becomes a harder fight if you wasted youru elixir S for their initial burst.

Just don’t even try to 1v1 d/d ele as a power engi. It’s not worth it. Your burst is better utilized in team fights.

Still learning more and more, loving this game. I know you thought you were all rid of me, but i have a few more questions. Ok, i have a lot more but i won’t bore you with all of them haha.

How do conditions stack with multiple people or with themselves? Like what if me and another engineer put on regeneration. Does healing power affect them in anyway? Will one overwrite the other if one person has higher healing power? Same for things like poison and if someone has higher condition damage?

Also, i have runes of the centaur cause they were super duper cheap, but i finally have some gold and i’m looking to upgrade them. I keep hearing rune of the pack, is that a wise choice? Only reason i’m hesitant is beacuse it seems the rune relies a lot of getting hit, which is something i want to avoid haha

Conditions:
There are two types of stacking, intensity and duration. Intensity will add stacks, for example if you apply 2 stacks of bleed and I apply 3 stacks of bleeding the enemy has 5 stacks of bleeding. The other type of stacking is duration. If you apply 3s of chill and I apply 4s of chill the enemy has 7s of chill. Since condis were fixed in PvE there is no overwriting other people’s conditions regardless of condition damage. Wiki can give you more information on the different kinds of stacking and which conditions stack which way.

Runes:
If you’re looking to upgrade for PvE there are many good choices. Scholar (or Nightmare for condi) is meta, and anything with power and +% might duration is not far behind (Strength, Hoelbrak). Pack works, Flame Legion works, and those are just the power runes. It depends (as most of these things do) on your build and how much you want to spend. Again the wiki is helpful here, just search for rune and you can see them all sorted by main attribute.

Adamantium.3682:

Conditions:
There are two types of stacking, intensity and duration. Intensity will add stacks, for example if you apply 2 stacks of bleed and I apply 3 stacks of bleeding the enemy has 5 stacks of bleeding. The other type of stacking is duration. If you apply 3s of chill and I apply 4s of chill the enemy has 7s of chill. Since condis were fixed in PvE there is no overwriting other people’s conditions regardless of condition damage. Wiki can give you more information on the different kinds of stacking and which conditions stack which way.

Runes:
If you’re looking to upgrade for PvE there are many good choices. Scholar (or Nightmare for condi) is meta, and anything with power and +% might duration is not far behind (Strength, Hoelbrak). Pack works, Flame Legion works, and those are just the power runes. It depends (as most of these things do) on your build and how much you want to spend. Again the wiki is helpful here, just search for rune and you can see them all sorted by main attribute.

Thanks for the reply!

I actually knew that part about conditions, i try to hover over everything now just to make sure i know what it does haha. What i’m not quite sure of is if you apply 2 stacks of bleeding and i apply 3 stacks but you have way more condi damage, do i basically troll you and make your condi damage less useful? Maybe i’m thinking about it wrong?

For runes i’m more looking at pvp, i plan on getting a second set of gear for pve sometime this week. Gotta learn how to do those fractal things!

Sobin.5947:

Adamantium.3682:

Conditions:
There are two types of stacking, intensity and duration. Intensity will add stacks, for example if you apply 2 stacks of bleed and I apply 3 stacks of bleeding the enemy has 5 stacks of bleeding. The other type of stacking is duration. If you apply 3s of chill and I apply 4s of chill the enemy has 7s of chill. Since condis were fixed in PvE there is no overwriting other people’s conditions regardless of condition damage. Wiki can give you more information on the different kinds of stacking and which conditions stack which way.

Runes:
If you’re looking to upgrade for PvE there are many good choices. Scholar (or Nightmare for condi) is meta, and anything with power and +% might duration is not far behind (Strength, Hoelbrak). Pack works, Flame Legion works, and those are just the power runes. It depends (as most of these things do) on your build and how much you want to spend. Again the wiki is helpful here, just search for rune and you can see them all sorted by main attribute.

Thanks for the reply!

I actually knew that part about conditions, i try to hover over everything now just to make sure i know what it does haha. What i’m not quite sure of is if you apply 2 stacks of bleeding and i apply 3 stacks but you have way more condi damage, do i basically troll you and make your condi damage less useful? Maybe i’m thinking about it wrong?

For runes i’m more looking at pvp, i plan on getting a second set of gear for pve sometime this week. Gotta learn how to do those fractal things!

Both conditions will tick at the values corresponding to whoever applied them. My 3 bleed ticks might tick for a total of 150 while your 2 ticks are at a total of 200.

PvP runes are free (except a few one-time unlocks) so if you want to try a new one go fot it and compare results.

As for the PvE and fractal side, we’re already friends in game and I fractal a lot on my Engi so feel free to ask anything about that

Adamantium.3682:

Sobin.5947:

Adamantium.3682:

Conditions:
There are two types of stacking, intensity and duration. Intensity will add stacks, for example if you apply 2 stacks of bleed and I apply 3 stacks of bleeding the enemy has 5 stacks of bleeding. The other type of stacking is duration. If you apply 3s of chill and I apply 4s of chill the enemy has 7s of chill. Since condis were fixed in PvE there is no overwriting other people’s conditions regardless of condition damage. Wiki can give you more information on the different kinds of stacking and which conditions stack which way.

Runes:
If you’re looking to upgrade for PvE there are many good choices. Scholar (or Nightmare for condi) is meta, and anything with power and +% might duration is not far behind (Strength, Hoelbrak). Pack works, Flame Legion works, and those are just the power runes. It depends (as most of these things do) on your build and how much you want to spend. Again the wiki is helpful here, just search for rune and you can see them all sorted by main attribute.

Thanks for the reply!

I actually knew that part about conditions, i try to hover over everything now just to make sure i know what it does haha. What i’m not quite sure of is if you apply 2 stacks of bleeding and i apply 3 stacks but you have way more condi damage, do i basically troll you and make your condi damage less useful? Maybe i’m thinking about it wrong?

For runes i’m more looking at pvp, i plan on getting a second set of gear for pve sometime this week. Gotta learn how to do those fractal things!

Both conditions will tick at the values corresponding to whoever applied them. My 3 bleed ticks might tick for a total of 150 while your 2 ticks are at a total of 200.

PvP runes are free (except a few one-time unlocks) so if you want to try a new one go fot it and compare results.

As for the PvE and fractal side, we’re already friends in game and I fractal a lot on my Engi so feel free to ask anything about that

Sweet, thats exactly what i was unsure of. Thats actually really cool, i’m glad that it will tick both values.

As per runes, I see so much talk about them. In spvp i run pack runes and in wvw in run centaur. I’m not quite sure if i should switch my centaur to pack for wvw or not. As i previously said, getting hit is not something i enjoy. I know it’s inevitable, but avoiding damage seems to be my best bet in full berserker.

I definitely want to try fractals, but it seems that unless i’m some pro elite person, i’ll just make it harder for everyone else.

Sobin.5947:

I definitely want to try fractals, but it seems that unless i’m some pro elite person, i’ll just make it harder for everyone else.

Fractals are progressive. The crowd you’re talking about (which really just boils down to experience) is level 40+. If you start in fractals you will be level 1 and by design be with people your own level or people knowingly and willingly helping those at your level.

How important is might stacking in pvp? I just grabbed the elixir gun instead of utility goggles and i noticed that i can now get 8 stacks of might, albeit i have to pop lots of things ( healing mist, elixir shell, acid bomb, super elixir). Thats why i’m wondering if its worth it, using all those elixirs (cooldowns) for what may only be a very slight dps upgrade

edit i swapped out inventions for alchemy and grabbed hgh. thats how i’m getting might

Sobin.5947:

How important is might stacking in pvp? I just grabbed the elixir gun instead of utility goggles and i noticed that i can now get 8 stacks of might, albeit i have to pop lots of things ( healing mist, elixir shell, acid bomb, super elixir). Thats why i’m wondering if its worth it, using all those elixirs (cooldowns) for what may only be a very slight dps upgrade

edit i swapped out inventions for alchemy and grabbed hgh. thats how i’m getting might

8 stacks of might is 240 power/condi dmg, if your unbuffed power is 2000, then after you’re at 2240 and it caused a 10% dmg increase. The lower your unbuffed power, the more might affects you. It also help makes up the stat difference if you’re going hybrid, or into 1 stat type while using skills that deal direct damage and condis.

I’m at about 2.5k power unbuffed, this only makes me more unsure whether i should attempt to stack might via using all my elixirs, or if the dps is so marginal its better spending that time and those GCDs to kill the enemy instead

I keep reading about how good we are at kiting, more specifically kiting warriors but for the life of me i just can’t do it. Elixir F is about the only cc i can ever get to land. Netshot? They just dodge roll, overcharged shot, always invulnerable. All the while they’re just slicing and dicing me with their swords right up in my face. Feels like there’s absolutely no way to kite them

edit my current build as of now

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUlUUh2tYNVwkLQ7FLTGk4zKQA+Oeyb+4IqQ8B-TZgaAAQZAA

I just feel like i do no damage, go through an entire rotation of all my big hitters + more and necros + warriors still have like 85% hp left

edit* Using marauder amulet not soldier

Among the list of things you start paying attention to as you progress with your skill level and experience is what boons/conditions/abilities your opponent has. Don’t CC a Warrior if they have stability up, and learn the icons for Berserker Stance and Endure Pain. Also learn what Rampage looks like and run away.

We are well equipped to battle against Warriors, but not for the skills you mention. Elixir F is too unreliable IMO since it moves slowly. Static Shot, Smoke Vent (FT), Smoke Bomb (Bombs), Flash Shell (Mortar), Flash Grenade (Grenades) are all great sources of blind that can usually lock a Warrior down long enough for you to gain the upper hand. Also our myriad of CC you just have to be sure not to use it against stability.

I love the idea of blinds, I just feel like everyone knows how to avoid them. Blinds are the main reason I took the mortar but what I’ve noticed is people just ignore it and don’t stand in it. I like the idea of static shot but don’t think I could switch off of my rifle. I’ve thought about getting grenades and dropping rifle turret but would that be wise?

That would bring me up to 4 kits,I’m really not sure if that’s good or bad. Would the single, long cool down, blind from grenades actually make a difference? A field that pulses seems like it is good but a single blind seems a bit underwhelming. Maybe I’m missing something.

Could bombs be my salvation?

Thanks for the reply! I’m still very much a noob haha

Bombs radius was fixed so they are back to being a good choice in the right build, given the nature of conquest mode.

You should use Flash Shell in specific scenarios. If you’re defending Waterfall against a melee class, dropping Flash shell right under you on point will give you a pretty big advantage, but might not do as much in Graveyard or against ranged classes. Also, make use of Endothermic Shell against classes reliant on cooldowns (Eles and Necros come to mind) and save Flash Shell for heavy hits (Ele swaps to Fire, Necro pops Lich), or use it to secure a stomp.

I think pretty much noone takes Grenades for the blind, it might boil down to a matter of positioning and experience. Also, Smoke Bomb is a poor man’s version of Flash Shell unless you need Stealth; it lasts less if you take Siege Rounds and ticks once every two seconds instead of once per second as Flash Shell does.

IgnisVulpesXI.3015:

You should use Flash Shell in specific scenarios. If you’re defending Waterfall against a melee class, dropping Flash shell right under you on point will give you a pretty big advantage, but might not do as much in Graveyard or against ranged classes. Also, make use of Endothermic Shell against classes reliant on cooldowns (Eles and Necros come to mind) and save Flash Shell for heavy hits (Ele swaps to Fire, Necro pops Lich), or use it to secure a stomp.

I think pretty much noone takes Grenades for the blind, it might boil down to a matter of positioning and experience. Also, Smoke Bomb is a poor man’s version of Flash Shell unless you need Stealth; it lasts less if you take Siege Rounds and ticks once every two seconds instead of once per second as Flash Shell does.

I was just recently thinking about if i should use endothermic shell more, cause right now i only use it if i’m running away. I hope that helps a bit, i’ve noticed that if i get eles low enough they just pop that earth shield thing and absolutely dunk me and i just get the constant ‘invulnerable’.

That sucks about bombs, was hoping that was going to be my saving grace lol! So are grenades really that worth it and i’m just being stubborn?

Also, would it be bad to run 4 kits, did some reading last night. All i found was info back in 2012 or 2013 about people using it with medkit, but the information i see more recently is that medkit is trash

Thanks guys!

The grenade/bomb kit thing is up to you, really. If you play hybrid/condi, Bomb kit offers that sweet 8/10s CD fire field along with 5 stacks of confusion; if you play power, Grenade kit has harder hitting attacks (Shrapnel, Poison, Freeze, Grenade Barrage) and you got some range to lay down the pain.

Technically you can still run 4 kits and not take Medkit, since we have Mortar kit now \o/ Can’t really offer much advice at how a build like that would work, though.

IgnisVulpesXI.3015:

The grenade/bomb kit thing is up to you, really. If you play hybrid/condi, Bomb kit offers that sweet 8/10s CD fire field along with 5 stacks of confusion; if you play power, Grenade kit has harder hitting attacks (Shrapnel, Poison, Freeze, Grenade Barrage) and you got some range to lay down the pain.

Technically you can still run 4 kits and not take Medkit, since we have Mortar kit now \o/ Can’t really offer much advice at how a build like that would work, though.

I run power, i’m torn between marauders and beserkers. Seems i’m just being stubborn. What i meant about the medkit was, i like the idea of the kits so i was researching any 4 kit builds last night but they were all years old and had the medkit. I assume this was well before the mortar was redone into kit. So i really couldn’t find much information. Would you consider it viable to have 4 kits and healing turret?

Chances are it might be able to do things and win you games, but if it isn’t meta it’s for a reason. However, unless you have super-high MMR you should be able to get away with pretty much anything, so you could give it a go.

This next part will be all theorycrafting since I don’t have the PvP experience or time to thoroughly test these builds, so take them with a grain of salt. And if anyone wants to drop their 2c feel free to do so, of course.

~~~~~~THEORYCRAFTING HERE~~~~~~
I’ll be ruling out Medkit since it’s kind of a pain to use in its current iteration, so if you want four kits, Elite will have to be Mortar kit. This pretty much implies one of your specializations will be Explosives to grab Siege Rounds, since it boosts the kit so much.

Running four kits also means you should grab Elixir Gun as support kit, since it is the only kit that offers a stunbreak; that leaves you with two open utility slots. I’d rule out Flamethrower out of the question if you’re running Power, which leaves Tool, Grenade and Bomb Kits. Out of these three, ToolKit has the very solid Gear Shield for when things get sticky since you don’t have Elixir S to get you out of danger, but you could forgo it and go nuts with both Grenade and Bomb kits, using whichever skill is off-CD but with only dodges and blinds as defense.

Since you’ll be taking many kits, Tools for Streamlined Kits seems a no-brainer, as well as Power Wrench if taking ToolKit. That’d leave you with one open specialization line: I’d pick either Alchemy for HGH might/cooldowns and some condition removal if you take Elixir H, or you could try Inventions for Bunker Down. Since you’re a glasscannon, you could even try out A.E.D. with A.M.R. and Gadgeteer – Gadgeteer doesn’t expire, so your A.E.D. would practically be on a 22~30s recharge (depending on when/if it fires off) with A.M.R. resetting it from time to time, giving you an option to turn the tide of a duel. Alternatively, just run Healing Turret and pick whichever specialization you like (Firearms for crits?).

So basically:
—> EXPLOSIVES:
1 .- Take Grenadier if using Grenades, Glasscannon otherwise.
2 .- Short Fuse if using Bombs, your choice of AARocket/Shaped Charge otherwise.
3 .- Siege Rounds.

—> TOOLS:
1 .- Power Wrench it using ToolKit, Reactive Lenses otherwise.
2 .- Streamlined Kits.
3 .- Gadgeteer if you want to try A.E.D. as your heal, your choice of Kinetic Battery/Adrenal Implant otherwise.
Note: It’s wise to learn which Streamlined Kit effect triggers which kit. The ones you want to aim at are ToolKit (2s of Superspeed), Elixir Gun (drop a glue trail that immobilizes foes behind you for 2~3s) and Bomb Kit (drop a magnetic bomb that pulls enemies towards its center).

If taking Elixir H heal:
—> ALCHEMY:
1 .- Protection Injection seems to be the best bet here.
2 .- Backpack Regenerator or Self-Regulating defenses.
3 .- HGH.
NOTE: Keep in mind Alchemical Tinctures (remove conditions with Elixirs) would only work with Throw Elixir H, Elixir H, Hidden Flask and Self-Regulating Defenses. HGH gives might and reduced cooldown to the previous four and Healing Mist (your only stunbreak!), Acid Bomb, Super Elixir, Elixir Shell.

If taking A.E.D. (With Tool’s Gadgeteer):
—> INVENTIONS:
1 .- Automated Medical Response.
2 .- Mecha Legs (you can change Tools-> Streamlined Kits for Takedown Round if you like).
3 .- Bunker Down.

If taking Healing Turret:
—> FIREARMS:
1 .- High Caliber/Armor Exploit.
2 .- Skilled Marskman/No Scope.
3 .- Modified Ammunition.

A different approach could be dropping Tools and run Explosives/Firearms/Alchemy to abuse Armor Exploit swiftness and Invigorating Speed procs for extended dodging, but I’m not sure if that’s as viable as it was before the Vigor nerf.

IgnisVulpesXI.3015:

Chances are it might be able to do things and win you games, but if it isn’t meta it’s for a reason. However, unless you have super-high MMR you should be able to get away with pretty much anything, so you could give it a go.

This next part will be all theorycrafting since I don’t have the PvP experience or time to thoroughly test these builds, so take them with a grain of salt. And if anyone wants to drop their 2c feel free to do so, of course.

~~~~~~THEORYCRAFTING HERE~~~~~~
I’ll be ruling out Medkit since it’s kind of a pain to use in its current iteration, so if you want four kits, Elite will have to be Mortar kit. This pretty much implies one of your specializations will be Explosives to grab Siege Rounds, since it boosts the kit so much.

Running four kits also means you should grab Elixir Gun as support kit, since it is the only kit that offers a stunbreak; that leaves you with two open utility slots. I’d rule out Flamethrower out of the question if you’re running Power, which leaves Tool, Grenade and Bomb Kits. Out of these three, ToolKit has the very solid Gear Shield for when things get sticky since you don’t have Elixir S to get you out of danger, but you could forgo it and go nuts with both Grenade and Bomb kits, using whichever skill is off-CD but with only dodges and blinds as defense.

Since you’ll be taking many kits, Tools for Streamlined Kits seems a no-brainer, as well as Power Wrench if taking ToolKit. That’d leave you with one open specialization line: I’d pick either Alchemy for HGH might/cooldowns and some condition removal if you take Elixir H, or you could try Inventions for Bunker Down. Since you’re a glasscannon, you could even try out A.E.D. with A.M.R. and Gadgeteer – Gadgeteer doesn’t expire, so your A.E.D. would practically be on a 22~30s recharge (depending on when/if it fires off) with A.M.R. resetting it from time to time, giving you an option to turn the tide of a duel. Alternatively, just run Healing Turret and pick whichever specialization you like (Firearms for crits?).

So basically:
—> EXPLOSIVES:
1 .- Take Grenadier if using Grenades, Glasscannon otherwise.
2 .- Short Fuse if using Bombs, your choice of AARocket/Shaped Charge otherwise.
3 .- Siege Rounds.

—> TOOLS:
1 .- Power Wrench it using ToolKit, Reactive Lenses otherwise.
2 .- Streamlined Kits.
3 .- Gadgeteer if you want to try A.E.D. as your heal, your choice of Kinetic Battery/Adrenal Implant otherwise.
Note: It’s wise to learn which Streamlined Kit effect triggers which kit. The ones you want to aim at are ToolKit (2s of Superspeed), Elixir Gun (drop a glue trail that immobilizes foes behind you for 2~3s) and Bomb Kit (drop a magnetic bomb that pulls enemies towards its center).

If taking Elixir H heal:
—> ALCHEMY:
1 .- Protection Injection seems to be the best bet here.
2 .- Backpack Regenerator or Self-Regulating defenses.
3 .- HGH.
NOTE: Keep in mind Alchemical Tinctures (remove conditions with Elixirs) would only work with Throw Elixir H, Elixir H, Hidden Flask and Self-Regulating Defenses. HGH gives might and reduced cooldown to the previous four and Healing Mist (your only stunbreak!), Acid Bomb, Super Elixir, Elixir Shell.

If taking A.E.D. (With Tool’s Gadgeteer):
—> INVENTIONS:
1 .- Automated Medical Response.
2 .- Mecha Legs (you can change Tools-> Streamlined Kits for Takedown Round if you like).
3 .- Bunker Down.

If taking Healing Turret:
—> FIREARMS:
1 .- High Caliber/Armor Exploit.
2 .- Skilled Marskman/No Scope.
3 .- Modified Ammunition.

A different approach could be dropping Tools and run Explosives/Firearms/Alchemy to abuse Armor Exploit swiftness and Invigorating Speed procs for extended dodging, but I’m not sure if that’s as viable as it was before the Vigor nerf.

Wow that’s freaking awesome. That’s kinda the same thought process i had. I didn’t want medkit cause it seemed sort of lackluster, and for some reason i’m really hooked to mortar kit. I love the fields, not sure if they’re actually useful or i just pretend they are. Next i realized for sure i needed a stunbreak, so obviously elixir gun and the added benefit of acid bomb to jump back. Toolkit i already had, mainly because of gearshield since magnet almost never works for me. The last kit i’m totally unsure, i was going to run bombs, but it sounds like that was more condition damage so i went with grenades.

I’m running explosives, tools and alchemy with the same traits you listed, except i think i grabbed static discharge. I love that i can do anything, on paper, but i’m starting to notice that actually doing all that seems to be a feat in itself.

For example, if a warrior jumps on me i can’t push him back, can’t netshot him, can’t cc him so i either run with jumpshot/acid bomb or drop a mortar light field to try to reduce the dmg and kill him. If i do the former, i’ve basically done no dmg to him and he’s still wailing on me, if i do the latter i reduce the damage a bit but he just steps out of the circle. Not to mention losing that gcd each time i switch to a kit, feels like i lose an ability everytime i switch kits.

I’m going to keep playing it, maybe swapping out grenades with bombs, cause that magnet bomb sounds pretty kitten. I’m gonna play until i know i have the muscle memory down and then i’ll see if things change for me. I still love the idea of the kits now and before i used to be so against it

Be wary of Static Discharge, there’s a queue bug which will unqueue skills while using SD or Bunker Down. Also, keep in mind Static Discharge pretty much misses with all non-target Toolbelt skills, so it will only reliably work with Throw Wrench – hence I suggested Power Wrench for extra block uptime. I’d say Static Discharge isn’t worth it unless you have at least two skills that can reliably hit with it.

Warrior might be pesky to fight against, as you have to check what buffs he’s got. If he hasn’t popped Berserker stance you can Flash Shell and wail on him (you’ve got the range and chances are he’s not Rifle Warrior), if he pops Berserker you will have to do your best to mitigate as much damage/heal up while running away until it expires and can blind him. Note that Rampage’s skills all come with around 1 second cast time, so you can stay in Flash Shell’s field with little fear of retaliation if he didn’t use Berserker stance when he entered Rampage.

Good luck too ! The hardest part of running multiple builds is knowing or trying to guess when each skill has come off cooldown and using them all effectively. Also, remember to use your combo finishers ! Elixir Shell lasts quite a bit and you should be able to blast it 3~5 (if you use HTurret and Big Ol’Bomb) times and leap through it before it expires, giving some extra healing while pressuring the enemy.

IgnisVulpesXI.3015:

Be wary of Static Discharge, there’s a queue bug which will unqueue skills while using SD or Bunker Down. Also, keep in mind Static Discharge pretty much misses with all non-target Toolbelt skills, so it will only reliably work with Throw Wrench – hence I suggested Power Wrench for extra block uptime. I’d say Static Discharge isn’t worth it unless you have at least two skills that can reliably hit with it.

Warrior might be pesky to fight against, as you have to check what buffs he’s got. If he hasn’t popped Berserker stance you can Flash Shell and wail on him (you’ve got the range and chances are he’s not Rifle Warrior), if he pops Berserker you will have to do your best to mitigate as much damage/heal up while running away until it expires and can blind him. Note that Rampage’s skills all come with around 1 second cast time, so you can stay in Flash Shell’s field with little fear of retaliation if he didn’t use Berserker stance when he entered Rampage.

Good luck too ! The hardest part of running multiple builds is knowing or trying to guess when each skill has come off cooldown and using them all effectively. Also, remember to use your combo finishers ! Elixir Shell lasts quite a bit and you should be able to blast it 3~5 (if you use HTurret and Big Ol’Bomb) times and leap through it before it expires, giving some extra healing while pressuring the enemy.

That’s good to know about beserker and flash shell, i’ll try that next time.

You’re right, in my mind i know what skills i want to use (kinda) and when but actually using them is where i fall short. I’ll switch to elixir gun only to realize acid bomb is on cd. Also when i want to heal, i know i can blast inside elixir shell but actually accomplishing that during battle is what i’m working towards.

That’s good to know about static discharge, for some reason i was under the impression that it would work on any toolbelt skill as long as i had an enemy targeted. Is that the reason some of my rifle abilities go on cd when i use them? Sometimes ill use blunderbus and bam, it will go to like a 3s cooldown instead of its typical one

If it goes on a ‘reduced’ cooldown it might be because you interrupted the cast (dodging, Elixir S), were interrupted by the enemy or your opponent is in a valid position respective of yours – for instance, trying to fire Overcharged shot when the enemy is at your back. All of the above will put it in a 5-second cooldown, except if interrupted by certain Mesmers with a particular trait. (That’s another trick, using Overcharged Shot to remove immobilize. Make sure to target something that’s in front of you or untarget everything to prevent the 5-second CD!).

You can cast Orbital Strike close to you to force people into taking damage or stop pursuing, then immediately drop Elixir Shell. If close enough, the water field will pop right before the first strike hits, giving you both blast heals. Also, long-range Frost Armor is great support during teamfights for your team!