Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

I’m a born-again GW2’er, freshly back from an 8 month break. I have a level 80 Engineer but had only just levelled it to 80 when I first took the break so wouldn’t class myself as the best, but do mostly know what I’m doing.

I’ve spent the last 2 days reading the build sticky and lots of other builds from Carpboy(i think his name was) amongst many others and whether it’s my OCD or just because there’s so many different ways the Engineer can be played, I honestly cannot choose a Build for how I fancy playing now I’m back on the game.

I’ve read through all the builds on this forum but still can’t decide on which one I should trait & equip for with limited funds, so wondered if people could recommend a build/playstyle if I tell them what I hope to do in-game? which is mostly Wvw (with zerg and the odd-roam to cap the odd area).

I honestly start sweating when i think “OK i’ll try this one”….30 seconds later…“hang on this guy also makes some great points…i’ll try that build….but what about that one….” etc.

If I could get a build that starts off with a fairly balanced Damage vs Survivability orientation, that allows re-jigging for extra Damage and Survivability through Skill once you become fully comfortable with the build – that’d be amazing.

I’ve also read about Celestial armour? (missed the event) it sounds good as it allows you to change your playstyle on the fly without worrying about re-equipping. Then I read how much it actually costs/time-wise etc. I (regrettably) gave all my gold away when I thought I was leaving the game for good and so Celestial armour looks out of my reach. Any further pointers on fairly balanced gear would also be a big help.

Anyway sorry for the waffling, thanks for any replies I get.

Celestial armor is not expensive. It is just a bit time consuming. I use travelers runes with it.

(1): +10 to All Stats; +2% Critical Damage
(2): +15% Boon Duration
(3): +10 to All Stats; +2% Critical Damage
(4): +10% Condition Duration
(5): +10 to All Stats; +2% Critical Damage
(6): +25% Movement Speed

It offers some of everything. It gives your defensive builds some offense and your offensive builds some survivability. And depending on who logs on or off in my guilds as the evening goes on, I might change my build a few times through out the night.

Lets start with some preferences you haven’t mentioned yet. Do you prefer ranged or melee fighting? Do you fell you personally like rifle, pistol/shield, or Pistol/Pistol? They are all equally useful, so just let us know which one appeals to you more? The engineer is one of the best professions for build diversity, so if you offer a few specifics, we can chip away to some of the options that might suit you best. I recommend going for what appeals to your sense of fun to start, then we can refine that to what would be functional for what you want to do. Because I do not care what anyone says, playing in a manner that you have fun with on a personal level is the key to this game.

You should wait for rune and sigil rework before investing in expensive upgrades.

Thanks for your detailed reply Coglin, should really have mentioned my wep preferences amongst all that waffle, haha.

I dabbled in Rifle in the very early levels & then never touched it against once I found p/p & p/s. So I suppose I’d feel more comfy with a build that used either of those. I honestly might just suck it up and start the Celestial slog!

I am a big fan of the Traveler’s Runes although I know they’re expensive and Xyonon is right – by the sounds of it Winter Big changes is a coming! so will hold off on purchasing anything major until the reworks hit.

The Jack of All Trades Spec is

30 (Bomb Radius, Shrapnel, Extra Grenade and Range)
10 (Reduced Pistol Cooldown)
0
20 (Protection on CC, Regeneration)
10 (Perma Swiftness)

You run 3 kits (Grenade, Bomb, E-Gun) and can basically do a bit of everything.
Weapons are Pistol/Shield.
Armor would be Dire with rabid everything else.
Runes of Perplexity will always be better in WvW than others. Cheesy but better.
Sigils are changing but essentially having extra stacks of condition damage matters.

Lots of conditions, blinds, utility, blasts etc. It does take a while to figure out when and where to use it all! But it also has gear that fits a lot of other builds. But it is probably the best build for getting a sense of who you want to be.

I would tend to get the dire/rabid set for this build then maybe a tanky Valkyrie/berserker set for more of a healing/support build which looks like this:

20 ( Bomb Radius and Shorter Bomb/Nade Cooldown)
0
30 (Extra Power, Power Shoes, Elixir Infused Bombs)
20 (Projection Injection, Backpack Regeneration)
Get the healing power sigil for the rifle right now.
Right now I use altruism runes
Slot bombs, wrench, generally e-gun for more big heals and condition removals.
Healing skill varies for Healing turret (big groups) to Med Kit (scales sooo much better with HP and allows for more use of altruism runes).

Not that expensive and you then have two very different playstyles.

Note everything changes April 15th from sigils, runes and GM traits.

Bombsaway – thanks, that’s great stuff. Not going to read any other threads & confuse myself until I’ve had chance to try yours & Coglin’s advice in-game…

Will not touch any runes until the changes come but i’ll give those builds a go later tonight.

If there’s a kit you know you already love, then go for it. Unless you’re shooting for absolutely highest-dps or strong WvW roaming builds, all of our kits are viable imo.

If not, set your traits to 30/30/x/x/x with the last 10 wherever you want. This will let you build for both grenades and bombs, shifting traits as you experiment without requiring paid trait reset.

April 15’s patch will give us free trait resets anywhere so long as you’re out of combat, so that will really improve your ability to experiment.

Zerker gear is the accepted choice for PvE content, peppering in defensive stats as necessary for your skill, familiarity with the content, and build.

I love Celestial gear; it offers the best versatility for experimenting. I have a set with 6x Traveler Runes too, and those are great, though expensive.

Keep those in mind but experiment with builds way before you invest in gear. Rare gear though, is always something to keep in mind. You can pick up a full 6pc set for only 2-4g.