Guild Wars 2

Hey all!

Im running the trusty HGH engin build again with a couple of tweeks!

Slate it love it, hate it. I dont mind its a very quick LIVE streamed video I just uploaded to youtube.

This is for Spvp mainly but has some nice utility to escape and survive for potentially wvw etc.

ANyways enjoy the below like

I am in no way saying this is the best build or that I know the BEST HGH build. So discuss watch use and have fun

Cheers all!

Jebro

Props to Mr Eggs for this build origin.

Cool build. Gonna try it. I’m running a bunker build. Was my first time in PvP tonight. The bunker served me very well

The problem of this build for sPvP is the mobilty, no pushbacks, low defense (just 2 blinds). Now you will have problems to get the 25stacks of might. I loved the build but at the moment it is not that good anymore.

I may shoot some footage but in team fights im on 25 stacks of might building it and boosting it in fights gets easier.

Survivability imho is quite good. The stealth on the Elixer S toolbelt skill for example for stealth ressing and downing, aswell as using the elixer S to down and avoid a lot of damage.

I survive theifs and mesmers pretty well atm as well.

The skill cap for playing this build is high, if you can play it youll play it well and be a pain for your enemies. Swiftness comes from also keeping your might up by using elixers regularly getting random speed from your heal elixer etc.

Still very viable in my opinion

I love this build too. But I remember as it was imba

Nice video Jebro but could i ask why HGH is making a “return”? If anything, HGH has been made even less viable than before with the change to Incendiary Powder making it impossible to run the trait which gives you 3 stacks of might on heal.

HGH build in my opinion wasnt really centralised around a heal/might stacking theory.

Its more around using the elixers to gain might and using the mass damage of the grenades for team fights. I do think HGH is prob more awesome in a team fight, but playing it myself atm its feeling nice in many a situation.

Also because there arent many around atm people dont know what to do when they come up against one

I would be interested to know any rotations/methods of getting those stacks up higher faster.

So theorycraft can HGH be one of the top Engi specs of the future or not?

I went back to using HGH-condis on my Engi after the last patch when they made the changes to the Toss B and S skills. It was great for Solo Q and not bad in Team Q.

The build relied heavily on Short Fuse and IP though. Subbing in Shrapnel for either is clearly a step down for the build. Toss B and S are always fun though and can make for some clutch plays.

Not sure I would agree with you on that comment as Im seeing a lot of damage from bleeds in this spec at the moment, but I could be wrong. It definately feels as if Im doing more damage than before tbh.

Also instead of Shrapnel, how do you think Exploit weakness would do in replacing that trait?

yeah the bleed stacking got way easier, the defensive capability took a dip though from losing the uptime on Chill and Blind nades. Maybe not such a big hit given the on-demand stealth and stab.

I dunno about exploit weakness. Seems redundant for a build with aoe chill, aoe immob as well as supply crate. I’m not sure the damage output could take the loss of Shrapnel’s bleeds either. There really aren’t a whole lot of options in that adept tier.

I’ve run HgH for about 6 months now (thank you OE) both in yolo QQ and tpvp. The main issue with the build you have posted is mobility. I take the 10 out of firearms and put those into Tools for Speedy Kits. It is a great spec I must admit and there is not much of a learning curve – if you can place ’nades properly then you are golden.

The main issue is that you are very squishy so range is your best friend. The stealth on demand is absolutely wonderful and I will kite around points simply harassing people until the condi’s truly kick in. With 25 stacks of corruption you are hell on wheels; provided you have the wheels. That is why I suggest Speedy Kits. I’d much rather have mobility. However, Infused Precision might be an equitable trade.

I mainly play as a roamer though. So I want/need quickness when I must have it. Just my 2 copper.

Problem with hgh nades is mobility though?

I actually survive really well. I think its the way i play I can cope with me vs 2 quite well sometimes. The stealth and elixer S combo is a nice getaway.

I like the idea of speedy kits, but as I keep building might im popping elixers and seem to get lucky with my swiftness, which I seem to be getting a lot of uptime with. Anyone else getting that?

Absinth could you post your proposed version of hgh? Would be really interested.

What builds are you using on a condi build? I got back from the game after a 3month break and i see some changes. I was full Rabid but i am probably going to change everything (gear, traits)

I don’t think HGH really left. It just became less popular when Necros received their boosts way back when. I’ve been HGH for what feels like a year (might actually be? I’d have to look at patch notes) and I would generally agree that HGH is still plenty strong. Losing a few extra Might stacks in exchange for some extra bleeds is the only really concern with the patch. The damage still feels roughly the same, but the Might stacks don’t get as high.

I still tend to use the Geomancy Sigil and aim for +50% duration with Lyssa + Nightmare though. I’ve generally noticed that more sources of damage are better then extra Might and those runes and sigils do that. The only reason I never looked at Shrapnel before is because of how low the chance is on it. That is probably the only thing that drives me nuts about it, because I never know if it’s working.

Agreed Aye,

Ill try another rune set perhaps what your suggesting.

One thing I would like to ask is if we go for more mobility with speedy kits, where would those 10 traits points come from? Discuss.

Also!

What other possible rune sets could be used? Also which sigils

Cheers!

2 Lyssa, 2 Hoelbrak, 2 Strength for runes. (Fire runes work as well.)

Reason being because I am lazy and the + might duration helps maintain might stacks.

Sigil of Corruption and Sigil of Battle.

Per your question, provided that mobility is an issue for you, I would simply take the 10 points out of Firearms and put them into Tools as this is the only place that you could truly spare 10 points. If mobility isn’t a concern for your type of play then go with the standard build.

Simple as that. Of course I would defer to OE’s wisdom regarding the build as he popularized it.

jebro.6370:

I may shoot some footage but in team fights im on 25 stacks of might building it and boosting it in fights gets easier.

Survivability imho is quite good. The stealth on the Elixer S toolbelt skill for example for stealth ressing and downing, aswell as using the elixer S to down and avoid a lot of damage.

I survive theifs and mesmers pretty well atm as well.

The skill cap for playing this build is high, if you can play it youll play it well and be a pain for your enemies. Swiftness comes from also keeping your might up by using elixers regularly getting random speed from your heal elixer etc.

Still very viable in my opinion

Sorry, but I couldn’t disagree more regarding the skill cap bit. I’ve played HGH, as you can see in my youtube channel – youtube.com/poliswag or /serafe, can’t remember – versus a guardian, and I’ve played pretty much every build out there including many that I’ve made myself. Based on my experience, a bomb/toolkit/elixirgun/healing turret build with p/s is by FAR the highest skill cap to play, especially in WvW roaming where the potential for burst is much larger.

The only part that really requires any skill is lobbing grenades, and that’s a pretty quick thing to pick up. With the utility setup I mentioned, however, you have to incorporate tactics such as stacking might for yourself, mid-combat to outdps certain builds, stack stealth in the heat of the moment to mitigate damage / avoid or escape from a zerg, time blasts with water fields such as the F1 regen with a big ol bomb, etc.

Otherwise, EHM (haha :p), the video was interesting. The only thing I see viable with HGH is the idea that you get some boons – you can easily build as much might without having used so many utility slots and maintain more kits through usage of enhanced performance, med kit, sigil of battle, and noble runes. Just food for thought.

Hey Pols

The build is primarily for spvp as mentioned in the first post. But could possibly be used for wvw. I myself prob use a similar build to what your mentioning atm. If you could post it then I could get an idea of the spec your mentioning.

Cheers for the feedback

id like to say hgh rifle zerker nader goes pritty darn good in spvp and i recommend giving it a go for a while, even though it lacks the tank elixirs make it very forgiving and nade barrage with 25 stacks of might never gets old lol, ive also found it ridiculously efficient at taking out other burst people, i was running 30/0/10/30/0 typical hgh nader traits with a few tweeks to suit it to power and the protection when crit trait in inventions to help out with the tank a bit, for runes i toke 2 water/2 monk/2 strength, i went more boon duration to help upkeep those boons that will help my surviveability a lil better and you don’t need more then 60-70% might duration to upkeep 20-25 might stacks, anyway ill see if i can get some footage of it and post it some time down the track, itll probably be mainly duels with my guildies since that’s all a really do in spvp.

@ukuni – Id be very interested in seeing those specs, if youd like to go ahead and post a build link here. THis discussion is going really well.

I think the main reason I didnt use a rifle was because of the condition damage on the pistol main hand and off hand

Burning on offhand of course and poison on the main hand etc!

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VW70;0B-Z;0h0u57QFx0;9;4T-9T-49A;10;019A;1S;5H7WCqRnC5Bc

this is what ive been using for spvp for my hgh zerker, a friend of mine who started using it after i showed him the capability’s of the build suggested using accelerant-packed turrets which was an awesome change because there isn’t much else that you can take to suit the build as far as adept traits go and the 3 turrets from supply kit make you great for fighting on points and this build is able to do so much in the short time someone is knocked down due to very hard hits.

Like i said earlier i opted for more boon duration to upkeep supportive boons like the protection which help out immensely and once again the fact that you can do so much damage in a short amount of time combos so well with the short bursts of protection you are getting, its essentially helping you get your burst off without worrying about the damage you could potentially take landing those close range rifle skills.

The recent buff to Elixir s and b also work great with this build, ive been doing stealth→stability→overcharged shot→then using all my burst skills without a problem because they didn’t see me coming and ive got alotta time to make the most of overcharged shot, essentially everything in this build works together really well, but it is difficult if you don’t know the engineer and how to react to certain plays, and using the utility’s at the right time to upkeep boons and dps as best as possible is also another challenging factor since you don’t want to waste precious time spamming elixirs when you could be dealing damage and trust me when i say you do alot of damage so its a very important factor to making the build work.

^ been using the same build, but i like hoelbrak runes as u get more power and -20 condi duration. hgh rifle/nades is a lot of fun. buffs to B and S made it more viable.

mistsim.2748:

^ been using the same build, but i like hoelbrak runes as u get more power and -20 condi duration. hgh rifle/nades is a lot of fun. buffs to B and S made it more viable.

I Will def try that variant out.

Would you mind posting your build dude at all?