Guild Wars 2

I’m currently running a condi damage/elixir build Engi for PvE at the moment but I would like to start and participate in WvW, however I am wondering if that condi damage isn’t all that effective in WvW and that a power/crit build would be much better?
I’ve heard that the grenade kit is beast in WvW but are there any other viable options? Also is the motor any good or would supply crate still top motor?
I don’t really want to be changing builds all the time to suit PvE or WvW so I’d rather have one that did really well in both and is fun to use. :P

I just want peoples opinions on what is best suited for Engi WvW wise.

Thank you.

The reason condition seems weak is that everyone has an ability to remove conditions. Don’t fret on this. Apply your conditions and keep applying them, while dodging and avoiding damage as much as possible. They can’t remove every condition all the time.

Grenades are powerful (especially if you get the Grandmaster major trait in Explosives), but they have their downsides. One, enemies can see the AOE of grenades as soon as you start to toss them. Two, their travel time allows for easy avoidance (especially if you toss them from their max traited range of 1500). Three, in WvW (because if its wide open spaces) you will probably hit an experienced player with 1 grenade most of the time instead of 2 or 3.

I go WvW in my farming traits , farming enemies like they are mobs. Works btw.

Make sure you dont go all out offence in your skills. Have some for escaping like the slick shoes or elixir S, supply crates work well too.

In fact, supply crates are a good “Signal” for the rest of ur zerg/team to rush forward.

When faced with a large enemy zerg capping ur point and your zerg is all behind afraid to move forth, what I do is: Throw some freeze grenades out at the same time, summon a supply crate on them. Usually by the time u summoned, you would have 10+ enemies targeting you, good time to haul kitten Pop in elixir S and back the hell off while your zerg rushes forth during that 2-3 sec stun of the crate.
Pop a healing turret and run back into fight.

For proper targeting of grenades, you will hav to train and get used to predicting where the enemy moves. It gets easier over time, esp with the large aoe the freeze grenades do (most impt skill imo), you will hit 90% of the time.

Remember, WvW is about teamwork, not solo play.

i’m running a cond/elixir both on PvE and WvWvW.

you will be fine, i suggest you test you build first and see if you like it.

I run grenades.

Then I respec when I can’t feel my fingers anymore.

Play the style you want to play, what do you prefer?

Grenades? Yes they do damage with Berserker gear big numbers but your defence is weak.

I tried grenades and it gets boring i now run a pistol/shild Condition Build with much Toughness. Try a bit with the possibilities you have and look what fits best to your playstyle.

Thanks for the reply guys.

In sPvP I’m using the Pistol/Shield Con. Dmg. Elixir build, have been for a while now so I know it can be great at taking players down. I was just thinking that because con. dmg. is one target mainly that it’d be better to spec into power crit AoE builds as it’s mainly zerg fest meaning more chance to hit with your nades, I’d still use pistol shield for the utility and pierce/AoE on the pistol. Though surly grenades would be better while defending?

It’s not so much I see con. dmg. weak it’s more about is it less effective than an alternate?

So as a whole Supply Crate is better, what about defending? Would motor be better?
I always have Elixir S when it comes to PvP situations, I can’t live without it. Would Elixir R be viable? AoE res an’ all?

Well I generally take a more defensive role, I like to kite people and have as many controls so I can wear them down little by little. But I’m flexible and I want to be a credit to the team in WvW rather that feel like I’m not doing much.

I like Mortar man, it needs more range but isn’t as awful as most folks say it is. I use it more for it’s utilities than dmg. When Im running around solo, I go with Crate, but siegecraft and zerg stuff I have Mortar equipped. It’s got a real nice aoe heal, aoe cripple to it that are great as well. It’s also an attention magnet i’ve found. The enemy goes bonkers every time they see it..sometimes stupidly so. “MOOOORTAR!!!! GET IT!!!”, and I just grin as they hobble their way to me. They close range and I give up the shotgun to the face treatment. Love it.

Ahhh Mortar. I setup shop on top of a keep once and decided to rain down some pain from above. Sure, the enemy noticed me and dropped some AoE fire on me. I was able to soak up the burning damage no problem. The thing is my mortar lasted maybe 5 seconds before disintegrating in my hands. It’s like it was made of paper or something.

I run rifle with a balance setup in WvW, support with this is great and its almost a sure win when you fight anything melee. Personally I find pistols almost useless in WvW because there are better classes with dps and conditions. Just can’t seem to use them well.

I’ve found that the endzones play pretty much like the PvP areas, so I’m using P/P or P/S depending mostly on my mood, not so much on reason. You need to kite, you’ll be stunned, rooted, blinded, weakened and feared everywhere, you need to be able to handle that.
Pistol mainhand with Coated Bullets gives an incredibly different outcome in mass fights as you hit so many targets, using the Pistols will give loads more xp and loot. In single target fights, like 1v1 pvp or bossfights the Elixir Gun gives better dps. In W3 you hit more enemies also, meaning that the damage to each of them is less, but combined it’s probably better.
I’ve become addicted to the Elixir B and Elixir H, I use the Elixir that breaks stun and makes me small (is it R?) as second and Elixir Gun as third also for the Healing Mist toolskill. Crate as elite.
The Mortar is fun if you can hit any enemies with it, but the Crate is so much more useful. The so called area revive Elixir doesn’t really hit more then 1 target unless someone died on top of each other.
A Condi build is lacking if the target runs away yes, but as your bleed is only 2 seconds this doesn’t really matter. You have to stay on target anyway to get it down. I find that Conditions also messes up the targets priorities, they will be more focused on removing the bleed, burn and Poison then fighting back. It’s as much as distraction as damage.

am I the only one who feels like Im too slow to keep the conditions on people? I basically need the elixir that gives me swift if I want to hit anyone running away. I also can’t deal with people tanking the conditions and just dps me down very well. I really haven’t used the shield much but is that what I need?

Something important about the crate.

If you play around with your traits, and get the decreased turret damage by 30% and the extra supplies, and then pair with with the packed accelerates 20 point explosives trait (the AoE KB on turret death)

Supply crate becomes an extremely useful ability in WvW.

You first have the AoE stun, good for stopping / slowing enemies. You then have the health packs and turrets themselves.

The with the trait you get 4 turrets, healing, flame, net, rifle. These turrets will last 1-3 hits in AoE. Remember aoe has a 5 target limit so they will effectively soak a bit of AoE damage for your team.

With the explosives trait when they die they’ll explode and trigger AoE knock backs. Since the turrets have different levels of HP they tend to die at different times. This can let you plop it down in a door way or on a zerg and trigger 4 separate AoE knock backs to slow the enemy advance.

I’ve actually been playing with Elixir Gun and pistol/shield with increased range on a conditions build lately.

Since the Elixir gun has longe range capacity, you can surprise a player with Elixir F, slowling them down (the swiftness buff seems to have a very limited range – 600 – 900, I think), and go back to bleeding and weakening them with your Tranquilizer dart. Get up close, Fumigate then Pistol Poison shot, Acid Bomb and turn around to Elixir F them again.

After the Acid Bomb and Elixir F, swap to your Pistol/shield and use Magnetic Shield to reflect any projectiles they might toss at you. If they run, then Captain America them with your Static Shield → Throw Shield.

Well it’s not letting me quote. q-q

@Baro:

I use Pistol/Shield with coated bullets in sPvP I find it very useful and can defiantly see how great it would be in WvW, though I wonder if pierce would be better than AoE (Grenades)? I don’t use the elixir gun, I use FT for the tool belt, it does an amazing amount of burning damage and I usually couple it with Static Shot so I can apply that burn on up to 4 enemies, not to mention the knock back it has.

Elixir S is the one that makes you immune and tiny.
So Elixir R is a no go then, suppose it is useful in dungeon runs or on support engi in sPvP.
Seems like crate has more utility and isn’t as frail like the motor, that and grenades have better range than the motor when traited, I was hoping it would have been amazing for WvW. :L

I get my bleeds to last for 3 seconds, but that is by the by. :P With elixir/condi damage build I have I can get 2 mins worth of swiftness and fury stacked and maintained so chasing down and finishing people usually isn’t the problem. ^-^

And if they don’t condi remove it’ll eat them alive, though it’s very easy for me to get stacks of bleeds back.

One question, something I can’t say I;ve noticed but other might have, do the pierced shots still bleed? I know the explosion doesn’t AoE bleed (though should AoE burn for 1 sec imho).

@ Esrev:

If you’re running a condi build the best base to go on is 10/30/0/10/0 or so it seems at the moment, this will give you a big boost to your elixirs (Maintaining swiftness, fury and might) even will allow you to condi remove just by throwing an elixir down which means you don’t have to use elixir C for condi removal, though some still prefer it for the random boons.
I prefer the shield over the second pistol for these reasons:

The blowtorch to me is stupid, a close range skill on a medium-long range weapon, if your opponent is within that range then there’s something wrong.
However the shield sprts a hard counter to both range an melee, you can bounce their attacks back damaging them while keeping you safe, can also be used to knock players back out of you range and or use it to interrupt certain skills for example interrupting heals. Not only that, I have incineration ammo and a 33% chance to burn on crit, I think I can live without.

Glue shot while good because it’s an AoE immobilize (albeit a 1 second one) dosn’t compare to the blocking of range attacks, 3 second stun on melee hit or the pierce daze that can hit twice. Though the C/D on glue is much nicer.

I hope that helped somewhat?

@ Kara:

While I can see how effective that would be it would feel a waste to me, I find anything to do with the turrets a gimmick, I hate replying on them and there would be no way it’d trait just for crate. Not saying it’s bad or anything, just personally it’s not for me. :s

@ Spora:

That is more of a 1v1 situation, though elixir F is great to slowdown multiple running enemies. If only the Elixir gun priced, that’d be great. >:D

Thanks for your replies, I wrote this early in the morning so I hope it makes a shred of sense. :P

Not sure about that aoe bleed Curring, just watching all those damage numbers from a clutched up group is enough for me hehe.

I have a feeling that the reason so many are questioning Condition builds is because they think it works like dot’s in some other games. The difference to GW2 is that you have to fight the same way with a Condi build as with a Damage build. You can’t apply a bleed and then run away to wait for your target to drop dead, you need to keep applying those conditions all the way. Yes, so they break it, then you restack. This has a significant impact on how the fight runs as a Power build will give you some burst damage which again force your enemy to use heals and defence skills. As a condition damager your enemy thinks you’re not hurting him and keeps charging you, that’s probably why a condition build is often combined with Toughness and allows for more Vitality. But but the time you’re dot’s have started to stack up, the enemy realises his mistake and panics.

And Curring, I’m sure the Grenadier build does much more damage then my P/P condi build, but I just don’t like grenades, such a clunky play style that gives me sore fingers and a headache!

I play with pistol/shield medkit/elixierb/slickshoes/rocketboots/crate 10/30/20/10 and i love it, i am not a big number maker but you have good CC and Damage

Baro.3549:

Not sure about that aoe bleed Curring, just watching all those damage numbers from a clutched up group is enough for me hehe.

I have a feeling that the reason so many are questioning Condition builds is because they think it works like dot’s in some other games. The difference to GW2 is that you have to fight the same way with a Condi build as with a Damage build. You can’t apply a bleed and then run away to wait for your target to drop dead, you need to keep applying those conditions all the way. Yes, so they break it, then you restack. This has a significant impact on how the fight runs as a Power build will give you some burst damage which again force your enemy to use heals and defence skills. As a condition damager your enemy thinks you’re not hurting him and keeps charging you, that’s probably why a condition build is often combined with Toughness and allows for more Vitality. But but the time you’re dot’s have started to stack up, the enemy realises his mistake and panics.

And Curring, I’m sure the Grenadier build does much more damage then my P/P condi build, but I just don’t like grenades, such a clunky play style that gives me sore fingers and a headache!

Well from what I gathered today (Testing on the golems in the Mists) is that the pierce shot carries the bleed from the shot however the AoE blast defiantly does not use the skills bleed, that said, it does seem it is still affected by the Bleed/Burn on crit traits/sigils. So with my build in one shot, if lucky, I can apply a 5 second bleed, 2x 3 second bleeds and a 2 second burn, I can do this on pierced shots too.

I’ve never played a condition build on any other game, most condi builds on other MMOs tend to be useless and GW2’s condi structure is how I saw condi damage should be anyways. I’ve only used one burst build, that was a thief and that was to test out why everyone were saying they’re OP, other then that all my builds have either being support or condi damage.

Grenades all the way. Power + precision, grand master in explosives. Ideal for team play, you can rather easily clear walls on keeps, deal significant damage and cause chaos in an enemy zerg while defending on the walls, as well as generally just blasting everything away. You can make an entire zerg back away sometimes. Freeze grenades are great for slowing them down so your zerg can catch up to them. The toolbelt grenade barrage is you most damaging skill, and it’s wide AoE on top. Supply drop helps during siege, and used as initial strike at the heart of the enemy when charging another zerg or enemy camp. Elixir S (shrink) is fantastic for reviving under heavy fire, for getting the hell out of there, for charging past the enemy into a keep. Riffle aids with the net shot for picking single targets, then nuking them down. And of course AoE generally helps to get loot and badges both here and in PvE.

Condi pistol with the pierce trait is actually really nice AOE dps with P/P

It lets you stack AOE bleed, burn, and poison with a little bit of confusion. Paired with bomb kit / FT and then elixir S I think it’s actually quite nasty in WvW.

But it’s less of an open roaming the map setup and more of the ((they are clumped in the arch / gate nuke em)) kind of setup.

You’ll do a lot of damage with the confusion bomb + static shot since you can get 7-8 confusion stacks up which will spike above 4k in a full condi build.

But it’s hard not to use grenades since they are just so strong at the moment.

piercing bullets on the pistol are great 4 wvw, you should see the cloud of numbers of dmg with only autoatcking, that sweet
also, grenades are good, you can either use them for fort defense or assault,mortar skill rocks, tho the mortar dies fast if you get targeted(which u usually do, bcuz ppl just panic when they see the mortar, dont know why XP
bombs are good too, you should see big ol bomb on a bridge fight XD every1 just gets knocked down the bridge besides they provide dmg and nice cc, use em on mobs and melees.
but overal, i recommend u go to the mists, play with the builds and spend some time kicking the dummies that are packed together and tweak the build as you see.