Guild Wars 2

So I am pretty terrible at PvP. This is my first MMO, I have only had it for like a month or so, and I play on my laptop without a normal mouse (making it hard to turn or aim stuff quickly). I very briefly tried a few builds in PvP as I’ve been working my way through PvE content. I tried a power-based shortbow ranger (using quickness to burst), an Axe-wielding warrior (for the Eviscerate burst), and an SD engineer. All of these burst builds were a huge fail for me (though I tried each for only a few matches). I would occasionally get kills, of course, but more often than not, I would be dead before I could really do almost anything. I was so bad that my teams actually lost the first 13 matches I played in. Basically, I’d provide virtually nothing to my team so it would be like my team was playing a man down, and my endless deaths would give the other team points.

So I decided to try a bunker build. And, in general, I’ve been having the most fun, by far, with engineer, so I decided to use an engineer for it. I used the following elixir-infused bomb build (with various modifications):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQJAqelUUpPrVWxdLseRiaBNqzE6bsxAIyQmlPFBA-TJxGwAAOBAMLDQ4BAsZ/BA

It was such a big difference. I went from being useless to my team to always feelings like a solid contributor and sometimes feeling like a really key player. With the help of turrets and my survivability, I could decap and hold a point against single opponents most of the time (though I had a particularly tough time with mesmers for some reason; I guess I just don’t know their tricks yet). I could also hold my own in 1v2s if the opponents weren’t particularly good. I wouldn’t kill them, but i’d waste their time until my allies came. But where this build really shined was when my allies were around. I am constantly providing SO MUCH healing for them. I’ve got bombs doing 331 healing every ~0.8 seconds, healing turret giving tons of regeneration and blasting water combos, Super Elixir on points for like 4500 total healing every 20 seconds, Sigil of Water, and occasionally Supply Crate’s med kits. Meanwhile I provide lots of CC to help allies survive and kill things more efficiently: smoke bomb for tons of blinds on capture points, glue bombs, three separate knock backs, etc. And then when the opponents are finally downed, I often lay down a smoke bomb that typically assures a finisher. As a result, I really felt like my teams were winning virtually every single 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4 showdown I was in.

I was 0-13 in matches prior to using this build, and my teams were 8-4 after I started using it. Pretty big difference. And in some matches I died very few times and managed to get the “You are on a Rampage” message. I suppose a n00b like me having success with a build probably indicates it is cheesy, but I just felt the need to share my success with this setup. For a bad player, this is a way to feel quite useful in PvP.

ALSO: Unrelated sidenote: one of those 8 wins was unbelievably amazing. On the map with the Svanir monsters (Forest of Niflhel?) that give you 25 points if you kill them, my team had fallen way behind but came back. We were down 475-499 and the other team was solidly holding 1 point (i.e. they were gonna win in like a couple seconds), but we killed a Svanir monster at the last moment to ninja out a 500-499 victory.

Congrats on finding a build you like and have fun with. As you progress you might find that other classes outshine bunker engineer at the same role but for now I would advise to just keep playing and paying attention to what is expected out of a bunker. You have already successfully identified aspects of a good bunker beyond just staying alive such as CC, team support and securing stomps.

As for advise, you can experiment with celestial and settlers over clerics if you want to keep using pistol shield since it and bomb kit benefit more from condi amulets. Rifle is a good choice for power based amulets, it brings great sustained damage and more CC to help decap points. protection is great but taking both protective shield and protection injection seems too much especially when you can take invigorating speed instead it will easily give you more dodges. Along the same vein, taking both speedy kits and power shoes is a waste because power shoes’ increase doesnt stack with swiftness and speedy kits gives you swiftness anyways along with proccing invigorating speed. I would also highly recommend doom and battle sigils if you want to win wars of attrition. One last suggestion is to try out tool kit over the turret, it gives you a block that has saved my life and stalled enemies countless times, a pull that has wrecked many enemies, and the classic prybar to an enemies face. Enjoy.

ps. This is the varation of the celestial engi build I use. Its less forgiving than a bunker build but you can decap, hold a point and kill people pretty well

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpErlcx+KseRCbBNqxAqNIyNWlPHhAkUA-TJRHwAFuAAAeAAk2f4YZAA

Lowest Animal.8014:

Congrats on finding a build you like and have fun with. As you progress you might find that other classes outshine bunker engineer at the same role but for now I would advise to just keep playing and paying attention to what is expected out of a bunker. You have already successfully identified aspects of a good bunker beyond just staying alive such as CC, team support and securing stomps.

As for advise, you can experiment with celestial and settlers over clerics if you want to keep using pistol shield since it and bomb kit benefit more from condi amulets. Rifle is a good choice for power based amulets, it brings great sustained damage and more CC to help decap points. protection is great but taking both protective shield and protection injection seems too much especially when you can take invigorating speed instead it will easily give you more dodges. Along the same vein, taking both speedy kits and power shoes is a waste because power shoes’ increase doesnt stack with swiftness and speedy kits gives you swiftness anyways along with proccing invigorating speed. I would also highly recommend doom and battle sigils if you want to win wars of attrition. One last suggestion is to try out tool kit over the turret, it gives you a block that has saved my life and stalled enemies countless times, a pull that has wrecked many enemies, and the classic prybar to an enemies face. Enjoy.

ps. This is the varation of the celestial engi build I use. Its less forgiving than a bunker build but you can decap, hold a point and kill people pretty well

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpErlcx+KseRCbBNqxAqNIyNWlPHhAkUA-TJRHwAFuAAAeAAk2f4YZAA

Thank you for the feedback! I did not know that Power Shoes and Speedy Kits do not stack, but it totally makes sense. I was feeling like swiftness wasn’t making me go much faster, and evidently that’s because it wasn’t haha. I think I’ll replace Power Shoes with Elite Supplies. I use Supply Crate in lots of super important moments, so that would be a useful trait, I think. Or I could stay with Power Shoes, not take Speedy Kits and take 2 more points in alchemy for Acidic Coating or something. That was actually my original build; I then modified it to get Speedy Kits.

I also originally tried Settlers Amulet. I think it’s a tough call for me on that. Clerics increases my direct damage a lot and makes my healing better, but Settlers makes my condition damage higher and gives me more toughness. Seems like it’s basically a wash to me, but I chose Clerics because I’m spending most of my time camped in bomb kit, which has some condition damage but seems more suited to power. Obviously, my main aim isn’t to kill stuff, but the 60% damage increase on the bomb AA is still nice to have.

I have tried toolkit a little bit as well (on an SD build, not this one though), but I think that block is probably far more useful for more experienced players. I can’t yet tell when other players are about to unleash their big attacks, so I feel like I just sorta block randomly. I might try it though. The block would still increase my survivability, and the pull would be useful for decapping.

Hi jake!

This is my 2° mmo, so i’m not so expert, but i started using engi in pvp as bunker.

May i suggest you this one?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQJAqelUUpPrlcx+KseNiaBNqzE6bkxAI6QmlkA-TJxGwAAOBAMLDUa/BCPAAA

it’s a Bunker/decapper. You have to go far, cap it, and hold it
Of course, it’s not better then a good Bunker Guardian, but imho, it’s still a fun play

If you like to be an annoying opponent(i love it… ^^) this is made for you.

I had a lot of fun with it. For a beginner it’s quite hard, because you have to switch always kit and choose the right skill, but if can use it well, you will be able to hold 3/4 opponents

if you don’t like elixir S, you can replace it with Elixir Gun or Thumper turret, or, if you want to be more aggressive, with Throw Mine, or Flamethrower, so you can interrupt the opponents.

I also run the Condinade, but when i run the decapper i feel more safe.
The problem with this build is that it has very low DPS, and it’s weak vs brainless LB Rangers who spam arrows, instead of Condinade, which very good vs Rangers, Guardians and Warriors

By the way, here’s the Condinade build that i’m using, if you want to try it.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQJAqelUUpErlcx+KseNCbBNqxI6NWlO+5DEgkC-TJhHwAU2fgwDAAwJAAZZAA

If i told something wrong, please correct me. I’m just a little bit less noob then who started playing recently

Have a nice play!

Why do you have both power shoes and speedy kits? it’s redundant, maybe better to go for 10 more points in alchemy for experimental turret or automated response. Also a soldier’s amulet may be better as healing power just scales horribly. Would bump you up to 24,000 ish hp. Also instead of protective shield, you could grab stabiliazed armor, that and protection injection can give a potential -53% damage taken when CC’ed.

engy bunker build
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQJAqelUUpPrlcxyKseNiaBF6bsxAI6Qmlk8pKA-TJxHwABOBAILD4b/BAPAAA
or run 3 kits taking off tumper turret an take in EG

Nemitri.8172:

Why do you have both power shoes and speedy kits? it’s redundant, maybe better to go for 10 more points in alchemy for experimental turret or automated response. Also a soldier’s amulet may be better as healing power just scales horribly. Would bump you up to 24,000 ish hp. Also instead of protective shield, you could grab stabiliazed armor, that and protection injection can give a potential -53% damage taken when CC’ed.

I did not realize that power shoes and speedy kits did not stack (though I was suspicious, since I didnt see much of a speed boost from swiftness). I think I’d replace that with Elite Supplies.

As for Soldier Amulet, I think that might be better. I did Cleric’s to maximize my healing per second from bombs and backpack regenerator. Healing Power doesn’t scale well normally, but for bomb healing it actually scales decently. With Soldier Amulet, you get 191 healing per bomb, while you get 331 with Cleric’s Amulet. Taking into account that bombs are laid like every 0.82 seconds apparently, that means 170 extra healing per second from that. That’s pretty significant, especially when it often affects allies as well. Meanwhile you’d get 47 extra healing per second from Backpack Regenerator and 23 extra from the Dolyak Rune. This means you’re looking at 240 extra healing a second. You also have Regen up the majority of the time with this build (and are giving it to allies as well), and you get 117 extra healing a second from that. Thus, when regen is up, Cleric Amulet gets you 357 EXTRA healing per second. That’s like having a Warrior Healing Signet added to the build. And that doesn’t even take into account Super Elixir, which scales decently with healing power as well. So I don’t think Cleric Amulet is DEFINITELY worse than Soldier for this build. But of course, the extra like ~6000 hp and ~300 power from Soldier is beneficial as well. I imagine the extra healing probably increases your survivability more than the extra hp, but it depends on the situation (i.e. Soldier is more survivable against burst builds, of course, while Cleric is more survivable in longer fights). Soldier’s Amulet gives you extra power, while Cleric’s allows you to heal your allies a significant amount more with your bombs/regen/healing turret. It seems like largely a wash.