Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, my in game name is Korrank Derringer. Im from Fort Aspenwood, and part of [NERF], or Fort Engineer. This is my build for how to 1v1 someone in sPvP/ Dueling in WvW (which I know isn’t smiled upon) using turrets.

If anyone has done this kind of build, I apologize, and as soon as I go on again to the forums, I’ll give that person credit. If anyone dislikes/ thinks this build is stupid, you have the right to state your opinion, but please, don’t turn this thread into a flame war. Also, if anyone has any useful tips/ suggestions on this build, please let me know, since any tips are extremely helpful to me. Finally, if this guide is too long, just stop reading, or if you find something stupid in this build, please point it out so I can change/ test it again.

As stated before, this is a 1v1 (1 Player vs. 1 Player) build. This is not to give anyone a “good” or “op” build, but I thought that since it works relatively well in 1v1 fights, I would post it here.

Weapon(s): The weapons can be varied, since all of the weapons that engineers use are useful for this build (I don’t use kits in this build)

-Tool kit: (suggested by CriSPeH) I count this as a weapon because although it takes up a skill slot, it has an entire arsenal of great skills. The magnet pull on this could be used to bring any enemies out of range of your turrets back into turret hell. The block is just as useful, as if the enemy is attacking you, you can just block his attacks while your turrets do more damage. The box of nails is mainly used to cripple your enemy after they enter turret hell zone, and pry bar is for smashing the enemy in the face. Finally, one of the main reasons you can take tool kit instead of thumper turret is because the auto attack heals turrets, which is useful for if the enemy does start to focus turrets and you still want to auto attack him while supporting your turret cc and damage.

-Pistol: I usually only use pistol in correspondence with shield, because dual pistols don’t offer much cc (which is basically the point of this build)

-Shield: My favorite weapon in Guild Wars 2, since it offers a great reflect/ knock back for even more cc/ interrupt, as well as a stun

-Rifle: This weapon seems really useful since it has a lot of good cc, such as net and knock back, as well as the escape/ lure skill jump.

Skills:

Healing: Healing turret
1st slot: Rocket Turret
2nd Slot: Thumper Turret/ Rifle Turret for bleeds (Suggested by Rolo Peregrin of Fort Aspenwood)/ Tool kit (see weapons)
3rd Slot: Net Turret
Elite: Supply Crate

Traits:
20/20/20/10/0

For the first 20 trait points in explosives, the first trait slot you can basically put whatever you want that would be beneficial to you as a player. The main reason I put 20 points into explosives was for Accelerant- Packed Turrets. Accelerant- Packed turrets in a 1v1 situation can be useful if you want some extra cc while your overload on the turrets is not up, as well as if you want a bit extra damage and knock back for any blast finishers.

For the 20 trait points in firearms, I put points into this for the pistol cool down, the pistol range, to maximize the efficiency of your pistols, as one mode of playing with this build doesn’t use kits.

For the 20 points in inventions, I put 30% damage reduction into the first slot (this can be varied, due to preference), and the last trait slot (most importantly) is for reinforced shield. Since you want to survive the longest while diverting attention away from your turrets, you want the extra toughness given by this trait.

Finally, for the 10 points in alchemy, suggested by CriSPeH, you would want to put Elixir S at 25% hp, since the invulnerability in a duel could give you time to set up more turrets, or just even heal. Also, the Elixir B at 75% hp is extremely useful, since it gives you multiple buffs, giving you an advantage over the person you are fighting.
Armor/ Runes:
For Runes, I use runes of the undead. I use these because I use the pistol/ shield combo, and these runes give me extra toughness and condition damage. I have also considered using runes of the guardian, mainly because of the survivability aspect, and the shield burn.

For Armor, I’m actually still experimenting. I currently use Precision, Power and Condition Damage armor (sorry about this, I forget what it is called) but I’m trying to find a better substitute with more emphasis on survivability (I’m tempted to try Toughness, Vitality, and Condition Damage, but I don’t have enough money to buy the set yet)

It’s up to you to experiment how you want to utilize the turrets, but I usually just time the turrets and the overload so they’re in constant cc, and so they basically can’t retaliate.

Well thanks guys, for reading it (if you even did). I hope this build is useful to you, and if it isn’t, then I hope you find a good build that suits you!

What would you do when your duelist focuses down your net, rocket, and healing turret?

Also, if this is mainly a 1v1 build, why take Coated Bullets?

Thanks for the input Aristio!

So, first off, the thing is, if the duelist focuses on your turrets, as soon as he blows one up, with Accelerant- Packed turrets, it would push him back, leaving you an opening to cc him with the thumper turret or rocket turret (depends on which he blows up). Also, I won’t deny the fact that if you run out of turrets, you’re pretty much screwed in terms of how the fight will go, so in order to at least increase the survivability of your turrets, try placing them in a circle pattern around your enemy, so they can all hit them, but they aren’t susceptible to massive AoE damage.

For your second point, I’m not really sure either! XD Haha! So, thanks for pointing that out, as Coated Bullets is really only useful for more than 1 enemy. The only time it would really be somewhat useful was if your were fighting a mesmer or a necromancer, who would be surrounded by minions, and the coated bullet would actually be useful. Even then, it would still not be very viable, so I’ll start testing out different traits that could replace coated bullets, so thank you very much for pointing this out to me!

20 points in Explosives for Accelerant-Packed Turrets…. Yep, sounds like a NERF engineer!

Nice Turret Build.
Also nice to see someone commenting on how they made something work for them rather than just complaining about how bad it is.

I would suggest dropping Coated bullets, either for another Firearms Trait or drop 5-10 points and put it into Alchemy instead for Elixir B at 75% and/or Elixir S at 25%.

I know you are going for an all Turrets type build but maybe dropping one for Toolkit could be helpful.
Even un-traited the TK does decent healing to Turrets so you could undo some splash damage they might recieve or at least keep them alive long enough to land a detonate.
The TK also has another block and like Aristio pointed out if they do focus your Turrets you can use Box of Nails and Pull+Prybar to yank them towards you and away from them.

If you are mostly looking to Duel 1v1 then unless you are fighting single ppl right after another it is safe to say that your Elite will be used in every fight. So with the Turrets from you Elite, which are also Accelerant-Packed I someone could easily drop a Turret for TK if you wanted a little bit of a wild card incase your Turrets get bursted down.

Otherwise you have the right idea on how to use Turrets, keep them alive long enough to use the overcharge all the while harassing the enemy. Then bait them to the Turrets so you can land the detonates. Keep Healing Turret close to the others to increase your chances of hitting the Combo Field.

I’m keeping tabs on this thread, curious to try turret builds. Happy with many aspects of engineers so far only not much use for turrets to date since BWE1.

Curious why you didn’t pick the GM trait in Inventions for the better dmg/range of turrets? Not worth it for any reason?

I’m also considering hurling low cool-down turret such as Rifle into enemies with the fixed Deployable Turrets trait since u picked Accelerant Packed Turrets. Haven’t tried this either.

I can only share my pre-patch experience of only liking the Flame Turret as it does only scale with cnd dmg, using it in a condi dmg pistol build for the tool let AOE burn and blind overcharge (I cycle my skills with the Bomb Kit #4 for multi blind). No one seems to like this turret for some reason though, so maybe I’m quirky enough to run with your Engineer guild haha.

You can use Turrets to chain-CC enemies. Thats the best use i’ve seen.

Rifle: Overhcarged Shot, Net Shot.
Rocket T: Overhcharge effect knocks down
Net Turret: toolbelt Net, shoots Net and overcharge for a stun
Supply Crate: Stun + Net Turret for moar nets.
Flame Turret: For the blind i suppose, aswell as some damage.

If you have the trait that turrets knockback when destroyed, yet more CC. You now have an Engineer filled to the brim with control effects, including a bunch that ignore Stability.

Drop a Supply Crate on his head. The stun is long enough for the spawned net turret to get a net off. Then your other net turret for the next net. Then your net, followed y overcharged shot. Timing is important, the next one is the knockdown from Rocket turret. And thats a lot of downtime for your target.
If he focusses your Turret he’s likely in for a nasty surprise aswell.

Downside is that its massively cooldown and area restricted. If someone is smart they back off and take down your turrets from a distance, and go in again but this time you have cooldowns. Or he kites you away from your own turrets. Profession with superior range will screw you over like that.
But this is potentially a melee-destroyer.

Thanks for all the feed back guys!
So, I’ll make a couple of edits. First off, given to me by CriPHeH, I’ll change the 30 points into the firearms trait to the alchemy trait, since elixir b at 75% health and elixir s at 25% health are both really useful in 1v1 matches. Also, I’ll add in you can change either the net or the thumper turret to the tool kit, for the really useful magnet from the tool kit to pull enemies into turret range, and how tool kit also has the ability to heal turrets.

The main reason I don’t put 30 points into the grandmaster trait is because whenever I tried using the turret range increasing trait, it never seemed to give me a significant advantage, besides the slightly larger range. The point of the turret build is mainly to be able to lure your opponent into your turrets, not have your turrets out range your enemy. (However, you will have a hard time luring your opponents into your turret hell if they are experienced enough to go outside turret range). Finally, if your enemy does run out of turret range, then the extra range won’t help much if the enemy keeps on running. I’ll still re- test the grandmaster trait in inventions, and see if it makes a significant difference. Thanks elyan!

Terrahero, you got the way you’re supposed to fight with turrets down! It’s true, this build really does counter melee classes, but its extremely weak against mainly mesmers, due to their infinite clones and not being able to target one enemy. I dislike the flame turret mainly because of its short burning range and small blind, however it does have a good burst combo that gives you stealth. Flame turret does excellent damage, but I would consider it a mid- close range turret, with less range than the net turret, but with more damage. I’ll see what I can do though, I’m thinking about changing up the thumper turret for the flame turret, and see how it affects the duel outcome. Also, you got down that if the turrets are all destroyed, you’ve lost the duel. So, I as I recommended, you should place your turrets in a kind of circle pattern, so they aren’t susceptible as much to AoE. You definitely don’t want to stack turrets on top of each other, as that will just make them die faster. Thanks for outlining one way to use this build!

Ok guys, thanks for the replies, and I’ll test your suggestions and make changes to the build!

I would make these suggestions.
Gear: Toughness precision condition damage.
Turrets are all about condition damage and thus this gear offers optimal sy nergy. Also it offers much valued toughness! and precision for on crit procs.

Jewels: Power, vitality, condition damage.
Again contidion damage for both you and your turrets alto health to round out your defense. power isnt as useful but its welcome.

When I run turrets in wvw I run 20/10/3010/0
Incindiary powder and accelerant packed explosives. (my gear gives me enough crit and contidion damage to warrant this)

increased cd on pistol

30% reduces turret damage, leite supplies (more turrets and more explosions) and rifled turret barrels) the range on rocket turret allows me to use it as a sniper turret.

and elixer 2 at 25%

I used pistol/sheild, toolkit,rocket, and rifle/net. You can sometimes get away with rifle turret because shield and rocket add enough cc for me. but the last slot is changable.

About turrets. THey are there to offer your opponent a choice, force them target them and leave you to get free attacks? or ignore them and die. Turret placement and positioning of your toon is key. Rocket turret has a long range so you shouldnt be fighting anywhere near it. So i place it outside my battle area and spam the overcharge. With this gear setup the knockdown will provide a nice burn and enough time for your conditions to get a few hits! I ran with 2 turrets and toolkit for the magnet pull(get them away from turret and the confusion and shield. I can get up to around 1700-2000 condition damage in wvw so those 2-3 rocket hits burn like hell. Even with the long cds I never find myself in a situation where im too upset at it. I get them to serve their purpose (knockdowns burns and bleeds) and then im happy.

I know u wnat to maximize turret usage but I would suggest at least 1 kit (tool kit) for more well roundedness and a better base when u have no turrets.

Well guys, I’ve tested a couple of things. First off, flame turret. Flame turret can be as useful and do more damage than thumper turret, so if you want to switch out thumper turret for flame turret, go right ahead. The only thing I missed without the thumper turret was that I didn’t have as much cc. That was made up though by the flame turrets burn, blind, and the burst combo for stealth, so I would place flame turrets as good in a 1v1 duel if not better than thumper turrets. I haven’t tried rifle turret yet, but in the past I’ve found that rifle turret does moderately good damage, but dies quickly.

Finally, I tried using tool kit. Personally, I hate using kits, so it didn’t work too well for me, since the magnet pull is extremely noticeable in a 1v1 fight, and the block didn’t always work. That’s just my experience with them, but if you work better with a kit along with your turrets, go right ahead, I’m just not very proficient with the tool kit.

Elixir S and 25% is a great way to bait enemies into your turret trap because they think they have you beat, then you invulnerable and they are right in the middle of your Tin buddies.

Mesmers are a good profession to drop you supply crate right ontop of because thier clones will shatter and kill the turrets causing the detonates, so if you time it right they will just help kill themselves.
Thieves like your turrets because they can free stealth off of them so they are another good target for Supply Crate.

Thumper Turret and Flame Turret are the only two I would suggest putting close together because you can use the blast finisher from thumper to combo the Flame Turret Smoke Field.
Really any combo of Turret can work its just all about placement and trying to force your enemy to second guess about which to take down, you or the turrets. The most damage you will get from Turrets will be from the detonate so trying to wittle down opponants to 30% or so then getting a mulitple detonate on them is a good chance to actually burn them down.

The Toolkit is a tricky kit to use and some advice if you want to give it another go would be to only switch to it for its specific utility skills.
So if a ranged enemy is just hitting your turrets from far away pull them in and use box of nails to CC them within turret range.
If they try to run away pull them back.
If they are attacking your Turrets instead of you pull them away and smack them.
Not sure why the Gear Shield isn’t working for you but I think you have to be careful not to cancel the animation because the block effect wont continue like static shield.
And a tip on pulling, since it is so noticable I would suggest trying a “headfake” pull, start the pull animation and if you see them dodge hit esc really quick and you can cancel the pull and just receive the 3 sec activation penalty.

The funnest thing I found to do with Turrets is use the TB skills and your weapon for the opening of the fight untill they burn a dodge or two and maybe even a stunbreaker, place the Flame/Net, Healing and Thumper close together then try to pull of this combo:
Pull
Prybar
Overcharged Shot or Shield Knock back into your Turret Clump, OS works better because you can aim and it knocks them down as well otherwise you might need to net them.
Detonate Turrets

That should finish them and leave them wondering WTF happened.
Remember an advantage of the Engineer is you never really know what they are gonna do untill they do it, unlike when you see the glowing D/D ele you know exactly what is coming. Even if you don’t run nades CC someone and then run right at then and most likely they will blow a stunbreaker to avoid the 100nade burst you had no intention of doing.

I love using turrets. Much more useful then people give them credit for. Been using a point defender build that does well at healing the party, knocking opponents out of point and wearing them down. Here is what I have been using if anyone’s interested.

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.4.6.0.19.0.13.0.12.0.81.85.83.86.102.1.1.7.231.234.0.0.0.0.261.262.267.276.274.0.0.0.0.20.0.30.20.0

Was using net over flame but now prefer the flame for aoe stealth and blind plus extra damage.

Accelerant-Packed Turrets YES!

The Jan. 28th patch made turrets much nicer now that player condition stats apply to turrets…

I find turret to be lack luster, but I’M happy to see people trying to make it works.

I have some question tho :

- What happen when a warrior whirlwind into your turret and destroy them all? Because it happened to me when I tested my turret build, and I found myself with only toolbelt for like 30-60 second.

- What do you use as a stun breaker? 25% trait?

- What about pet class like ranger, mesmer and maybe necro(their pets are really bad)? Since you can’t control your turret aim, they can attack a bear all fight, and you have 0 damage output.

- How is your damage output?

- What do you do if the enemy get away from your turret area?

Well Kardia, I think I might have a couple answers you’re looking for, but you asked very good questions!

First, turret placement is key. The entire point is to place the turrets in specific locations to counter things like warrior whirlwind or the Elementalist AoE. Also, I recommend that you don’t use all your turrets at once, and time the use of them for the best impact, such as if you want him knocked back but immobilized, you could range that with rocket turret + net turret, or thumper turret + net turret. Finally, if you know the type of enemy you will be facing ahead of time, tweak your turret skills to match him.

That’s one of the flaws of this guide as well. In the guide, we don’t really have a stun breaker, and we hope to cc the enemy before he can get his stun on us. If you got any good ideas for a stun breaker, please let me know!

Well, I’ve found that necro pets kinda suck, so they die quickly. Mesmers and Rangers counter this build. Hard. That’s why unless you’re more skilled than them, or they just don’t know how to use their pet(s) effectively, you’ll have a hard time beating one of those two classes.

To be honest, pure damage output relies on conditions and cc, so it’s not any type of pure power build , but a build that lets you control the battlefield and the fight so you have a greater advantage over them.

If the enemy gets away from your turrets, wait until they’re far enough, then when you de- aggro switch thumper turret for a tool kit, and try to pull them back in, and as soon as you do that, then overload net turret.

Thanks for the questions! If you have anymore questions/ you aren’t satisfied with my answers, let me know!