Guild Wars 2

I’m trying to figure out what type of gear / specs I should be shooting for.

1) What is the ‘norm’ for Engineers to run nowadays as far as traits/equipment/utilities?

2) Any good Rifle builds (I dislike the hobo sacks that replace the weapon while using kits, I don’t really like Elixers because of their random nature which I feel is just terrible game design, and my rifle fits themeatically with my Engineer)?

3) Are there any really good resource websites with a compilation of builds and guides which are thoroughly analyzed by administrators of the site before they are approved and can be rated by users, like what League of Legends has in solomid.net?

Giver Pistol and Shield for +10% condition duration each
Berserker or Rampager

Explosives 30 with II, VII or VIII and XI
Grenade Kit

30/5/0/10/25 or 30/5/0/25/10 (I run a more defensive version with 30/0/0/30/10)

I run fractals using rampagers with full runes of the undead, pistol/shield, EG and FT.
10/20/20/20/0

It gives you a strong condition damage presence, reasonable direct damge with Juggernaut and Elixer B, light and fire field self combos with 2 blast finishers, and fair amount of group regen (if you’re using healing turret). I feel it’s a great build that contributes to group play and solidly covers all the bases.

What the people above have written is good advice. The grenade kit with elixir gun and a 3rd skill of choice (mine is rocket boots) and rampagers gear is the best choice in dungeons. I’d like to add one tip though, with runes of the centaur you can get 100% uptime on swiftness without having to drop 10 wasteful points into speedy kits. The runes also synergize very well with the typical build for grenades.

+Healing turret!

What do you guys think of 30/15/0/0/25 with beserker gear? Is that the highest dps possible? Not worried about survivability at all, just want to maximise dps.

spoj.9672:

What do you guys think of 30/15/0/0/25 with beserker gear? Is that the highest dps possible? Not worried about survivability at all, just want to maximise dps.

Yes it is.

Forestnator.6298:

spoj.9672:

What do you guys think of 30/15/0/0/25 with beserker gear? Is that the highest dps possible? Not worried about survivability at all, just want to maximise dps.

Yes it is.

Agree. And w/level 80 Pizza, you can extend your Condition Duration quite nicely.

Ill more likely be using dungeon specific potions and curry butternut squash soup. But thanks for the confirmation, havent seen anyone link that trait setup for dungeons which im a bit surprised about.

spoj.9672:

Ill more likely be using dungeon specific potions and curry butternut squash soup. But thanks for the confirmation, havent seen anyone link that trait setup for dungeons which im a bit surprised about.

The only time using the pizza is worthwhile is if you are basically the sole vuln stacker, which rarely happens but I suppose it can’t hurt to keep some with.

spoj.9672:

Ill more likely be using dungeon specific potions and curry butternut squash soup. But thanks for the confirmation, havent seen anyone link that trait setup for dungeons which im a bit surprised about.

It is the strongest when unbuffed, anyway. A lot of engi’s personal power comes from how well they stack might, and without more information the lack of might stacking abilities might drain power away from the build. If you have teammates that can keep might on you, then it won’t be a problem.

A lot of engi’s go with koi cakes or pizzas anyway due to their ambient condition damage. At full might a full berserker engi has 875 malice. While using pizza, its 945, and with runes of the noble it is 1,128. With that, bleed ticks for 99 damage, and that adds an extra 5,940 damage per opponent with shrapnel grenade. Though it is condition damage, so it takes awhile to build up… also burning ticks for 610 so fire bomb will deal 8.5K damage in burning over 14 seconds against 5 targets. Shrapnel itself will add roughly 9 ticks of bleeding with each grenade attack (891), and even in my full beserker build I can’t get grenade #1 to hit for more than 17,820, so it is a superior damage trait then empowering adrenaline on grenadier builds.

By comparison, without those buffs, shrapnel grenade will only do 3,881 condi damage, fire bomb will do 5,678, and the shrapnel trait will do 582 damage with grenades. Curry butternut squash soup increases damage at max might by about 7%, so you’ll have to weigh whether that extra power is worth more than a 50% damage buff to conditions.

EDIT: Oh yeah, a thing is that a lot of engis are concerned with survivability. It’s pretty easy to get, though: just put 10 points in alchemy to pick up invigorating speed. Combine that with infused precision or speedy kits and BAM: perma vigor. You also get Hidden Flask as a bonus.

Engineer with Bombs/Discharge and Zerk gear has probably one of the best damage output in game:
https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/92649/Bomb.jpg

Thanks for the comments. I say im not worried about survivability as I mained a necro and they have a much harder time surviving melee than any other class lol. Will be testing out bombs aswell as they seem pretty fun while leveling.