Guild Wars 2

Kinda getting frustrated in WvW with my condi engi not being up to par with other classes if you get enough control effects and purging effects your dead cause u cant do any damage…… does anyone got any idea wtf i can do to make p/sh compete with the meta perplexity and burn builds are the only thing that get results and even then its if the player im fighting is half decent they will still murder me.

Expert theorycrafter?….

Condi Engi is amazing, it’s pretty well documented. Link your build if you would like suggestions.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqelsThOvYJXwWLQ7FLsFF4HWiBQYNcRv2YOOG1GA-TVyYABGeCAYRJIAK5+Rdl52fwIVKCQ5gI6B27BAEAABgZOzgUA3NNC-w

my build. and on my server almost all the WvW people that need advice on builds come to me and take my word on it and they are usually pleased, I enjoy helping people basically,

back to builds though i use gadgeteer for a short CD stunbreak passive, as well as reduced CD slick shoes(I dont have an issue w dodging things so i dont take adrenal implant as it competes w vigor on TB) so if i do get CC’d i can just pop SS’ while im on the floor and the radius prevents any melee from getting near me without losing all their stability and faceplanting as well. you can see im very armored have decent vitality and run plex runes w FT. Yes theres a med kit in this build GASP I find it great for condi fights and it pairs well w streamlined kits for a free reflect as well as giving me a reaction time should I get bombed w instant 20 condis doing 9k dmg a tick (PU condi mesmers & condi thieves)

I do not want to take my shield off IMO its needed in WvW w the killshot wars, pew pews and the like, also the shield 5 is great vs hammers and thieves.

My first suggestion, swap Over Shield for AMR.

My second suggestion is Swap slick shoes for Rocket Boots.

Last is a rework of your traits. Swap Tools for Alchemy. This of course means dropping FT for an Elixir (I use Elixir S, and if I know I’m fighting a heavy condi fight maybe swap in C). Trade out Med Kit for Elixir H. This gives you a bunch of extra condi clear.

The build you have should work fine though, so I don’t know what your issues are (aside from med kit, that build should be using turret). Just remember if you are running perplexity, interrupts are your bread and butter. If you aren’t stacking confusion and are wasting interrupt abilities, pick a different rune set.

Tyaen.5148:

My first suggestion, swap Over Shield for AMR.

My second suggestion is Swap slick shoes for Rocket Boots.

Last is a rework of your traits. Swap Tools for Alchemy. This of course means dropping FT for an Elixir (I use Elixir S, and if I know I’m fighting a heavy condi fight maybe swap in C). Trade out Med Kit for Elixir H. This gives you a bunch of extra condi clear.

The build you have should work fine though, so I don’t know what your issues are (aside from med kit, that build should be using turret). Just remember if you are running perplexity, interrupts are your bread and butter. If you aren’t stacking confusion and are wasting interrupt abilities, pick a different rune set.

AMR I can understand for using a Heal Turret i figured faster shield CDs would be helpful but im using med kit so its no point w a 17 sec CD heal.

swapping slick shoes for rocket boots and dropping my tools line takes away my stunbreaks which is what im trying to help mitigate my stunlock denial so I dont think thats a good idea……..

Alchemy is a great line no doubt, but im not a big fan of elixir S not only cause of the CD, but cause i have no access to cleansing while im tiny so ill melt from condis if i pop it at the wrong time. Also im trading two SBs on short CDS for a long one even with reduced CD. while with my two choices and gadgeteer, I have one 30 second SB and a 21 second SB as well as super speed, fire aura and access to a defensive perimeter with an overcharged slick shoes trigger.

I have no prob with the plex rune procs I use my shield skills slick shoes and FT 3 for that reason so thats all good…

Anymore suggestions based on this reply?

Only other thing I can suggest is swap Gadgeteer for Kinetic Battery, then at least you can double pop your heal.

As to the original title of the post though: Yes condi engi is viable, I run it full time with zero issues.

i run burnburst

its for small man roaming, sucks in zergs. has huge burst. it does pretty well. definitely wont feel like you dont do enough damage.

you can change the gear to your taste using carrion/rabid/dire/sinister. try to keep 25%+ crit rate. my generosity is a major, and cleansing/purity/energy or smothering/bursting/malice/corruption/torment are valid replacements.

i feel like the 3 or 5 rounds of perplexity nerfs finally got that kittening rune to a balanced state, but engi doesnt have a whole lot of confusion access aside from them… so they just arent that great for engi any more. especially cuz it normally means you give up blowtorch, which is ridiculous now.

The changes I would recommend for your build are:

• Swap Gadgeteer with Kinetic Battery (double stun break or double incendiary ammo after a dodge)
• Swap Med Kit with Healing Turret (the blast combo heals more and removes 3 condi’s)
• Swap Mortar Kit with Supply Crate (another interrupt for perplex runes)

• (Optional) swap Mecha Legs with Soothing Detonation

you can swap back to Mortar Kit for taking objectives or while in the zerg

good suggestions all around, im seeing alot of you guys agree on gadgeteer being swapped for kinetic battery, do any of you use it avidly enough that you got a set rotation on procing it without error? I sometimes get it right and absolutely ruin peoples day, Then there’s times I don’t even realize it proc’d and i miss the CD.

Dusk.4708:

good suggestions all around, im seeing alot of you guys agree on gadgeteer being swapped for kinetic battery, do any of you use it avidly enough that you got a set rotation on procing it without error? I sometimes get it right and absolutely ruin peoples day, Then there’s times I don’t even realize it proc’d and i miss the CD.

I am not a big WvW’er, but I feel I can answer this from the perspective of sPvP and it would translate pretty well.

Kinetic Battery is an incredible trait when you play with it and not against it. It’s always up at the beginning of a fight, so right there you should dodge the first attack you see and use a very powerful toolbelt skill for free (like Incendiary Ammo). It’s hard to time after the first one, but it’s just something you have to keep an eye out for. Once you play with it a lot you sort of get an internal timer going for it in your mind.

Double Toss Elixir S, Incendiary Ammo (this one really hurts), stun breaks (Super Speed/Healing Mist), Moa, Med Pack Drop, the list goes on for ways this trait can really turn the tide of battle in your favor.

It’s a decent enough when you use it if you happen to see it work, but it is worthy of its Grandmaster slot when you really work with it and plan to use it.

If you’re using Gadgeteer that means you’re using gadgets and that’s already putting you behind the 8-ball. The only way I would even consider using Gadgeteer is with Reactive Lenses as an adept trait (for the Might when it procs) and my build had weak toolbelt skills that didn’t really matter if I used with KB, and I don’t need the endurance regen from Adrenal Implant.

cool, I keep that in mind, anyone else got something to add to any of this? The more info the better for everyone, not just me

Dusk.4708:

cool, I keep that in mind, anyone else got something to add to any of this? The more info the better for everyone, not just me

Well it depends on if your building for solo roaming, small group roaming, back line zerg build or front line zerg build. A little direction with what your looking for would aid in assisting you a fair amount.

As dancingmonkey said, it depends on what you’re aiming for. I prefer to fight with zergs, so my loadout is going to better accommodate that (meaning no gadgets for me). When I want to fight from a distance, I don’t use any condi at all. Orbital strike with siege rounds, kinetic battery, zerk wep + jewlery and celestial armor does very good damage with good survivability. Even if I screw up the kinetic battery use, the two orbital strikes is often enough to give my zerg headway. Very useful when trying to push against an enemy zerg that setup AC defense.

When I use conditions, it’s with full celestial and two pistols with bombs (larger zergs) or FT (smaller zergs/roaming teams). The blowtorch is an absolute must as it adds a lot of pressure on a pretty fast cool down. Combined with incendiary powder and incendiary ammo, anyone who doesn’t have condi cleanse is in for a world of pain. Fire and concussion bombs are great room cleaners for when you’re fighting a zerg in a tight area like a tower or lord’s room. Fire damage is much better than confusion now, but when toons get stuck in fast combat animations without canceling them, the confusion becomes quite deadly (ie: 100b warriors).

Elixir S is also pretty useful and I often keep it in my skills. It’s quite useless IMO in roaming or small scale fights, but in zerg fights it has saved my bacon more than once. It has allowed me to continue the fight in what otherwise would have been my downfall. For that reason, I often maintain Elixir S and EG (condi cleanse + extra heal) on my skill belt 100% of the time.

For roaming this has always been good:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqelUUh+sYJXwdLQ7FLsFF4HWiBQYKeRvmYHVFPBA-TVyYABGeCAYRJIAK5+Rdl52fwIVKCQ5gI6B27BAEAABgZOzgUA3NNC-w

Bombs are a little umming and ahhing but are a good condi option against melee, whilst against ranged classes the auto attack on elixir could not be more amazing.

Perplexity and Grenades Isn’t optimal but works wonderfully for me. no problems taking on multiple enemies at once. It’s my go-to condi solo roaming build.

Pyro mode on is one of two builds I run in a roaming trio I have going on, very down-shutting and offers good support. (can switch out crate for mortar’s elixir shell but I prefer the crate’s area denial and 2nd heal)

for pvp it works . You can use it with ft or with eg+ elixir. IF you want another really strong setup, for pvp , try alchemy+explosive+firearms pistols toolkit, eg, elixir S or B (for speed if u don’t use rune of the traveler) and you will see how condi nades are strong now. The only problem using nades now is that , in a condi setup , you have to take explosive and firearms togegher otherwise the loss of damage is too high ( nades speed is a must and IP is … IP

IMO, Streamlined kits is sorta redundant with mecha legs. You run a bit faster and it might have been acceptable had you taken inviogorating speed but you can’t and vigor isn’t as good as it once was regardless. I think Lock On would be far superior given all the stealth that is running around especially when mesmers seem to be the natural bane of engi… well anyone really.

I also just don’t think Gadgeteer can be more useful than Adrenal Implant with just one gadget. I mean, you’re getting a faster recharge after you use the skill and build up charges after getting hit several times. It would just seem to me that getting more dodges is better. The thing is Slick Shoes I don’t think is that great in WvW. It’s awesome in PvP when you can spray it over a control point, but when you don’t have much mobility, it’s a lot harder to get it to work and you’re often just taking it for the stun break. I suppose you could get some pulls or shield stuns to combo it, but I’ve never been good with that ever since magnet’s so friggin broken in pathing these days.

In anything exceeding a 1v1 scenario, stun breaks on their own tend to be rather inadequate in getting out alive. Dodges on the other hand, are always golden. Now, stunbreaks are always good to have, but I think focusing a bit too much can be troublesome.

Also, I’d just stick with healing turret really. Overcharge, and pick it up for more cleanses. I’ve never been a fan of that long cast time on bandage.

Anyhow, condi engineer is solid for small scale wvw and from my ancedotes, usually only mesmers, necros, condi rangers, and good d/d eles tend to be big trouble. Certain builds can’t seem to do anything at all to you. Fortunately, the two that can outright kill you are also pretty bad at chasing you. I find it better for small group than solo, but whether it is because I have people carrying me or making up for my lack of disengage or because shield and stuff just works better in a group setting remains a question.

This being said, I actually think the suggestion for Rocket Boots over stunbreak isn’t really a bad idea at all even if I personally wouldn’t do it because mobility is very effective in wvw. Depends on style I guess.

As a side note, I’ve been slowly converting some rabid pieces to dire just because I don’t really know if the crit helps that much. 40% should be good enough—- I think.

I think it’s still functional at face value but building for it pigeon-holes you hard into certain utilities that, while they work on even grounds, don’t offer much cleave potential and will severely limit your ability to disengage (by about 100%). If WvW Roaming had a section on MetaBattle, I wouldn’t expect Condition Engineer to be above Great.

I think the most reliable combination for burns in my experience is P/P+FT+Rocket Boots+S , elite being either X (Moa) or Crate (stun + healing field + more med kits), with mandatory traits of Firearms 113 and Tools 211. Kinetic Battery Incendiary Ammo is, as has been said before, a huge boon in terms of burning people down. Additionally, the ability to guarantee a stomp in 1vX situations is invaluable and something you can’t get without S (FT5 only works if you aren’t being harassed).

In terms of digressions, Dire/Rabid P/S+Tools+S is tried and true with not much in terms of fat to cut away. It offers a good spread of trash conditions, the ability to apply them multiple times, and our best methods of mitigating damage while those conditions tick.

That said, the beauty in Burn builds is that they aren’t strictly required to rely on Precision for their primary damage sources (read: 15 Burns every 15 seconds) to be applied; so long as you have ~12% base crit to proc Incendiary Powder with one Bleed + FT1 or luck, you can get away with stacking only condition damage and defensive stats.

I’ve found more success with off-meta stats like Shaman armor + Apothecary trinkets than I likely would be finding in a more balanced condi build, because 15 Burn stacks + a knockback and mitigation will put in 99% of the work so long as you have the Bleed, Poison, Confusion, Torment and Cripple trash condis to hide them behind— which we do, and more.

There’s a lot of room to improve upon the concept, but the build is fun when it works.