Guild Wars 2

Hi, I am starting to play engi with 6/6/0/0/2 build with pistol/shield for dungeons and rifle for PvE. Always with full zerker (exotic) gear with Eagle runes.
I need some suggestion for pistol/shield sigils, I was thinking to put Sigil of Battle on shield, and what about pistol?
And on rifle I’m running Bloodlust and Force sigils (I think these are ok? >.< )

Also, if there is something to change in the build let me know Thanks a lot!

Only one dont use pistol shield in dungs those are mostly for condi builds yes you can have one more blast shield but not worth it really. Rifle all the way. Sigils are usualy Force and for most of the dungs Night

Hiho, pistol + shield is total viable, rifle is only a small dps increase, only stunning with high numbers. However it is a dps increase – but only personal. The blast finisher from the shield can be used as heal, stealth and might stacker. In the end rifle / pistol + shield doesn’t matter that much since you will only spend like 5% of your time on them.

Sigils for both of em → Battle, Force for allrounder. Good sigils overall are Night, Force, Battle, Strength and Accuracy. For open world Bloodlust (or easy stack dungeons).

As for runes, Scholar or my personal preference Strength. Eagle is ok if you already got them. Other cheaper choices would be Ranger, Pack isn’t bad too or simply jewels. Oh yea and kitten > zerk at engi. I realized this too late so 3 parts of my ascended armor are zerk, but engi goes with “on crit” stuff. You want 60-70% crit chance. Never go for more than 70%, cuz with buffs you get over 100% then.

greeeez

I love that your assassin was replace by kitten Xyonon

But, Xyonon and Rozbuska are right (more Xyonon). Rifle would be the best choice. But, you most of the time you your nade, flame-thrower or elixir gun. So even if pistol/shield is less dps, its not that big of a deal. As a casual, you wouldn’t see any difference. Pistol/Shield on the other hand will give you a blast finisher and a reflect, that will increase you survivability.

For sigil, its always the same things for most profession.

- Force and Accuracy : Not the best, but it’s the best that work everywhere.
- Bloodlust : Its perfect in WvW, but in PvE. Either you don’t need it (open world), either you don’t have time to stack them before the end (dungeon). It work for some dungeon, but …
- Night and Force : It will give you the best dps, but won’t work for all dungeon. The good thing is that it will work on most of the more profitable dungeon that everybody do.
- Battle and Force is pretty good for the engi since you will be switching kits like crazy with this build. It will also work everywhere. For most profession, its less good that Force + Accuracy, but for the engie, it may be superior.

Bluderbuss and Jumpshot are significant part of any good dps rotation pistol have literaly nothing dps wise. I didnt any precise calculations but rifle has at least 3 times more dps than pistol especialy if you run in zerk gear.

I would go rifle aswell. That being said, depending on the party (bad ones, actually), I use giver’s pistol/shield = more survavility and more condition-vuln stacking.

In either case I end up with sigils battle/strenght (assasins rifle and armor). In a perfect group, where might stacking is a thing, is a dps loss; but I only do PuG runs. I am able to stack 20-25 might for myself the whole fight (9-12 or so for the party), which is far better thatn 15% damage modifiers from night/force.

Another thing is that I don’t trait for “rifle mod” but for “hair trigger”. Rotations are more simple with this, more condition removal and is a dps increase if fights are longer (like in PuG runs).

force is really lame.

at least night/slaying are strong enough that the boringness matters a little less. id go air or energy instead of force.

You don’t have to compare the dps of the rifle with the one of the pistol. They are for completly different uses. Pistol + shield is for utility, brings blind, stun, block, reflection, aoe knockback and a blast finisher. It’s definitly a weapon that sees more uses in pugs but it sometimes comes handy at places like the harpy fractale or by choice against mai.

But if you want to compare the dps, you have to compare skill 3 and 5 with the grenade auto attack. It will be better to use the rifle, yet rifle 3 only hits 3 targets and stacks less vuln and skill 5 is just kitten.

In the end I say too that the rifle is better in general. But the shield (mainly) is nothing you can mock at.

As for sigils it’s again the same story: If you have 25 stacks might all the time by others in an organized group, night, force are the best. If you are part of the might stackers you’ll go strength runes wich synergizes greatly with rune of battle / strength (9 stacks perma might). If you don’t have 25 stacks, 5% damage is fast outdamaged by more might stacks.

TLDR: very well organized: force + night / X slaying, everything else: force and battle.

If you’re comparing rifle dps to no rifle dps over 60+ seconds the difference isn’t so large, but rifle shines because many encounters in this game are short with a proper group, and have decent walks between encounters, allowing you to start one fight with jump shot + blunderbuss, and have them off cooldown to start the next fight with the same. I think you’ll find the difference in dps between a rifle setup and a no-rifle setup for a 10 second fight is much, much larger. That said, you should still be swapping to shield when pre-stacking might, or for any harder skips where you may benefit from an extra block.

Indeed Sins, totally can sign this. Short combats you have a great damage spike.

Yea this was not my post I was initially resounding to op whom like ^^ stated op deleted post so it looks weird. Moderator should just delete thread.

Rozbuska.5263:

Only one dont use pistol shield in dungs those are mostly for condi builds yes you can have one more blast shield but not worth it really. Rifle all the way. Sigils are usualy Force and for most of the dungs Night

From my experience it’s for the condi/support build to keep yourself alive.

tigirius.9014:

Rozbuska.5263:

Only one dont use pistol shield in dungs those are mostly for condi builds yes you can have one more blast shield but not worth it really. Rifle all the way. Sigils are usualy Force and for most of the dungs Night

From my experience it’s for the condi/support build to keep yourself alive.

Sure but noone will take condi or support build into dungs in this game:-)

Just don’t forget that the shield makes you a higher priority target for enemies. It’s sometimes pretty annoying to wear a shield. I just wonder if the “wears a shield” status also is applied while using a kit.

Xyonon.3987:

Just don’t forget that the shield makes you a higher priority target for enemies. It’s sometimes pretty annoying to wear a shield. I just wonder if the “wears a shield” status also is applied while using a kit.

i didnt realize this was a thing

is there some research on it somewhere

I can only leave this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tyb50tSoNg

But in my early days I’ve always played psitol+shield and now switched to 80% of the time rifle. I can not 100% ensure this but it would explain a lot more “tanking” from my side. I beleve it’s true but I cannot confirm it. But I guess I could test it if i get aggro or loose aggro with or without shield (without any attacks and also thinking about toughness and … oh that’s gonna be taff).

have you also switched any gear around since your early days

Xyonon.3987:

Just don’t forget that the shield makes you a higher priority target for enemies. It’s sometimes pretty annoying to wear a shield. I just wonder if the “wears a shield” status also is applied while using a kit.

Not only shield same with rifle. I noticed in many stackfights is my engi one and only target even if I wait and start damage few secs later and still. There is multiple things what affect agro, like armor, toughness, distance from target, dps, number of dodges compare to dps it works for other classes but looks like engi has something what makes him target more often then it should.

I can only say what i see at the wiki. But I doubt for example that the armor you’re wearing affects the aggro system, rather the toughness it provides. However maybe aggro is also affected by “on hits” and “condition applied” wich makes us the main target right away (grenade barrage).

But all those things are happening either if you wear a shield or not. But I really thing that a shield does affect something. Still – I need to test this later.

Rozbuska.5263:

Xyonon.3987:

Just don’t forget that the shield makes you a higher priority target for enemies. It’s sometimes pretty annoying to wear a shield. I just wonder if the “wears a shield” status also is applied while using a kit.

Not only shield same with rifle. I noticed in many stackfights is my engi one and only target even if I wait and start damage few secs later and still. There is multiple things what affect agro, like armor, toughness, distance from target, dps, number of dodges compare to dps it works for other classes but looks like engi has something what makes him target more often then it should.

I feel like AoE and multi-hit attacks draw aggro as well. Even though engineers have the same armor as thieves, my thief draws considerably less attention in dungeons.

before somone starts pointing out something – Pihneas obviously meant thoughness and not vitality

well yea talking about aggro – if there are 5 mobs and everyone cleaves on them but you as engi hit 5 of them, 2 will obviously start attacking you.

lemme think for a sec…

i use rifle and nades 100%, and usually have bombs and mines (unless i need tk block/pull and/or rocket boots or some other niche utility for a single encounter). party comps are pugs mostly, except that tank guard.
maybe your experiences are comparable, but ive just never used shield mostly cuz jump shot is so op in pve and i feel like at least rifle has good burst where its hard to justify using p/s in non-niche situations besides blasting. plus i made predator a long time ago and… the aesthetics man, the aesthetics. even yellow sab shield cant beat that.

Xyonon.3987:

before somone starts pointing out something – Pihneas obviously meant thoughness and not vitality

well yea talking about aggro – if there are 5 mobs and everyone cleaves on them but you as engi hit 5 of them, 2 will obviously start attacking you.

Was just an honest mistake. I misremember some things. Fixed in edit.

Pip.2094:

Hi, I am starting to play engi with 6/6/0/0/2 build with pistol/shield for dungeons and rifle for PvE. Always with full zerker (exotic) gear with Eagle runes.
I need some suggestion for pistol/shield sigils, I was thinking to put Sigil of Battle on shield, and what about pistol?
And on rifle I’m running Bloodlust and Force sigils (I think these are ok? >.< )

Also, if there is something to change in the build let me know Thanks a lot!

Just realized I never responded to the actual OP.

6/6/0/0/2 is maximum DPS, but unless you’re very experienced running dungeon/fractal content all the time, and unless you are with a static group that knows how to boon-share effectively, you’re going to want some vigor access in your build.

Engineers are among the lowest tier when it comes to survivability in PvE. I’d say elementalist is the only class tougher to survive with inside instances. For this reason, and especially when doing higher level fractals, Arah, and CoE, most either swap the two points in Tools out as needed and put it into Alchemy for Invigorating Speed (and changing Precise Sights to Infused Precision). You could also just keep a weapon in your bag that has a Sigil of Energy. Your choice. But don’t #yoloswag the LFG tool thinking your leet DnT deeps build lends well to the PUG environment; you’ll get some good groups, but 6/6/0/0/2 is not a carry build in any sense of the word. You’ll drop in two seconds if guardians, mesmers, and thieves aren’t holding up their ends as you have no stability, no vigor, and very bad condition removal.

I personally prefer Runes of Strength over Scholar/Eagle. Our primary role in PvE is stacking might and vulnerability. Under ideal conditions Scholar ekes out more damage, but in reality Strength’s 5% bonus under might is a sure thing since you self-stack it. +45% duration also means that your might lasts the full cooldown of your might stacking rotation, so it’s one of those things where you’re choosing more personal DPS versus more group DPS because you’re sustaining 9-12 stacks of might versus not.

If engineer is your main class, I honestly recommend investing in multiple sets of gear. If you’re in the kind of group that rotates blinds and aegis well, and reflects projectiles properly, then investing in a second set with Scholar runes may not be a bad idea.

Rifle is maximum DPS. You should run rifle the majority of the time as rotating in Blunderbuss and Jump Shot improve your overall DPS. Having the shield is nice for the extra blast finisher, though, especially if there’s no elementalist in the group to help get up to 25 might.

I don’t understand why people are encouraging Assassin gear these days. I think Berserker is still best. You reach 25 vulnerability without it.

Oh, and use Koi Cake as food. +40% condition duration in PvE is hilariously good.

I think that’s everything.

Phineas Poe.3018:

Rozbuska.5263:

Xyonon.3987:

Just don’t forget that the shield makes you a higher priority target for enemies. It’s sometimes pretty annoying to wear a shield. I just wonder if the “wears a shield” status also is applied while using a kit.

Not only shield same with rifle. I noticed in many stackfights is my engi one and only target even if I wait and start damage few secs later and still. There is multiple things what affect agro, like armor, toughness, distance from target, dps, number of dodges compare to dps it works for other classes but looks like engi has something what makes him target more often then it should.

I feel like AoE and multi-hit attacks draw aggro as well. Even though engineers have the same armor as thieves, my thief draws considerably less attention in dungeons.

Only explanation what come to my mind is that engi have all aoe attacks to 5 targets while other classes mostly only up to 3 targets.

Phineas Poe.3018:

I don’t understand why people are encouraging Assassin gear these days. I think Berserker is still best. You reach 25 vulnerability without it.

scales better with might and engi doesnt reach any crit break points for 100% rate in zerk.

its not the vuln, precise sights is crap. you can stack to 25 on trash without it and it doesnt last long enough against champs to matter for anything. idk why the hype, prolly just people getting shiny eyes for vuln and not realizing its a 3 second base duration.

insanemaniac.2456:

its not the vuln, precise sights is crap. you can stack to 25 on trash without it and it doesnt last long enough against champs to matter for anything. idk why the hype, prolly just people getting shiny eyes for vuln and not realizing its a 3 second base duration.

The only time Assassin is definitively better than Berserker is when reflecting. At every other point it’s a matter of less than 1% difference, and by that point RNG plays a bigger factor.

Sauce.

If you want to get into the nitty-gritty, I’m sure that engineers can go along with mesmer and guardian in having that second set. But for the average player it’s bad advice; in bad groups Berserker is better, and there’s more than enough crap in this game you can’t crit where Assassin is a bad investment.

Like I get the push for best-in-slot, but sometimes people overthink things way too much. Like using 2 Tools with Battle/Force and forgetting you actually need vigor sometimes, and that you’re not always going to be in a meta-group where vigor is getting shared.

was just stating the logic for it, i think its a wash myself and havent been motivated to make assassin gear

I made this Excel formulas myself and i’m 100% sure everything is correct. I use this Excel data for every class if I want to know anything about my dps compared to builds and runes and sigils, buffed and unbuffed etc.

• buffed means 25 stacks might, banners, spotter etc – all the META build buffs you can get
• it does not affect any +7% crit chance sigils or any +X% damage modifiers
• this calculation only fits for engineers using strength runes comparing zerk vs kitten

In the end Zerk deals 1% more damage unbuffed, decaying to 0% when buffed. I happily sacrifice that silly % damage for all the new onhit stuff i can proc more – bleeding, vuln, strength sigil if (i don’t) you use them etc.

kitten is overall much better than zerk for all the engis out there who are using strength runes. Using scholar grants you different but with the additional ferocity probably even better results. Don’t get over 100% crit chance full buffed or you become weaker. However the only targets kitten is weaker than zerk is against structures you cannot crit. But – seriously – who cares

greez Ziggy

PS: “kitten” is censoring @ssassin cuz of @ss …

EDIT: scholar doesnt grant precision – it grants ferocity, my bad

Xyonon.3987:

In the end Zerk deals 1% more damage unbuffed, decaying to 0% when buffed. I happily sacrifice that silly % damage for all the new onhit stuff i can proc more – bleeding, vuln, strength sigil if (i don’t) you use them etc.

1. Strength Sigil is pretty bad these days. It’s probably the worst option between Force/Night/Battle.

2. You take Shrapnel? I would advocate swapping that out for Empowering Adrenaline, especially if you’re going with Runes of Strength and aren’t afraid to dodge.

3. I just don’t understand how you’re not already capped at 25 vulnerability as it is. Against trash this is easily achieved. And Precise Sights is just too short a duration to be useful against bosses. Hair Trigger is generally better, imho, especially when Jump Shot provides 6 stacks of vulnerability at double the duration.

Xyonon.3987:

kitten is overall much better than zerk for all the engis out there who are using strength runes. However using scholar grants you more precision and may give different results. Don’t get over 100% crit chance full buffed or you become weaker. However the only targets kitten is weaker than zerk is against structures you cannot crit. But – seriously – who cares

Well considering the toughest boss fight in the game (Wurm) cannot be crit during first phase, I would argue that players should care about what they’re investing in for what is—at best—a situational advantage in niche builds.

It just sets a poor precedent saying that Assassin is better with a bunch of asterisks behind it. You’re not going to have a ranger, elementalist, and warrior in every dungeon group to reach those “buffed” statistical values, and in many cases having a ranger, ele, warrior, and engineer in a group is really not that great as that leaves one slot for either a mesmer, thief, or guardian. In fractals and a lot of dungeons that really won’t work out.

This is all theorycrafting. It’s a useful exercise, but I think the meta should be better grounded in reality.

I agree on precise sigjt. But strenght+ battle allows me to have 25 stacks of might in solo or bad groups.
Sharpnel has a long duration bleedings, is well worth imo.
Assassins vs berserker, pretty even.

So I see no mention of dual pistol builds here. Which confuses me because as far as PvE goes, I find dual pistols to be much more effective than a shield or rifle in PvE combat.

Phineas Poe.3018:

Xyonon.3987:

In the end Zerk deals 1% more damage unbuffed, decaying to 0% when buffed. I happily sacrifice that silly % damage for all the new onhit stuff i can proc more – bleeding, vuln, strength sigil if (i don’t) you use them etc.

1. Strength Sigil is pretty bad these days. It’s probably the worst option between Force/Night/Battle.

2. You take Shrapnel? I would advocate swapping that out for Empowering Adrenaline, especially if you’re going with Runes of Strength and aren’t afraid to dodge.

3. I just don’t understand how you’re not already capped at 25 vulnerability as it is. Against trash this is easily achieved. And Precise Sights is just too short a duration to be useful against bosses. Hair Trigger is generally better, imho, especially when Jump Shot provides 6 stacks of vulnerability at double the duration.

1. Strength sigil are better if you want to stack might fast, battle is better if you want to keep it or against targets you can’t crit. It’s more a personal choice but I also prefer battle. Force is always a must have but night is just for organized and specific dungeon runs. Since I play much more pugs than organized pt’s and it’s not worth it for me but I agree – it worth mentionable.

2. Sharpnel, empowering adrenaline, forceful explosions – they are all situational and good. Don’t stay on one if you can’t make use of it. I mainly go fotm and often it’s not wise to throw away your endurance for a damage boost. Forceful is for everywhere where mobs often spread or you need the bigger aoe’s for either applying conditions more safetly (like ascalon fotm where warriors often rush into your untraited smoke bomb and hit before a new blind is applied) or for outranging none fire fields for combat might stacks. Everywhere else: yea EA.

3. Two reasons to take kitten here. First: More early stacks = faster more passive damage for the team. For yourself its less efficient, but for the team it’s better. Dealing with trash mobs of Vet class+ is all about stacking vuln as fast as you can. Real trash mobs don’t care about nothing and die anyway too fast. And second reason: champs. I even use 40% condi dura bufffood and with that one PS is great.

Phineas Poe.3018:

Xyonon.3987:

kitten is overall much better than zerk for all the engis out there who are using strength runes. However using scholar grants you more precision and may give different results. Don’t get over 100% crit chance full buffed or you become weaker. However the only targets kitten is weaker than zerk is against structures you cannot crit. But – seriously – who cares

Well considering the toughest boss fight in the game (Wurm) cannot be crit during first phase, I would argue that players should care about what they’re investing in for what is—at best—a situational advantage in niche builds.

It just sets a poor precedent saying that Assassin is better with a bunch of asterisks behind it. You’re not going to have a ranger, elementalist, and warrior in every dungeon group to reach those “buffed” statistical values, and in many cases having a ranger, ele, warrior, and engineer in a group is really not that great as that leaves one slot for either a mesmer, thief, or guardian. In fractals and a lot of dungeons that really won’t work out.

This is all theorycrafting. It’s a useful exercise, but I think the meta should be better grounded in reality.

You’re mixing a ton of stuff up here. The “toughest boss fight” in the game requires any way different gear you want your utmost efficiency. I don’t even take this as a valid argument sry.

No, I’m not going to have a ranger, ele, warrior in every dungeon group, you’re right. Yet I’m gonna have at least 2 of those 3 in my pt. Besides, even unbuffed it’s just 1% wich is laughtable to argue about. This is nothing about theorycrafting – I’ve always been more reality oriented than theory. Stuff like “scholar is better in pugs than X” or as you may say “1% more damage with zerk is better than kitten with more crits” is theory crafting.

Oh and I have no idea why or where you would have trouble with a decent war, ele, ranger, engi + mes / guard team in fotm 50.

Ryn.6459:

I agree on precise sigjt. But strenght+ battle allows me to have 25 stacks of might in solo or bad groups.
Sharpnel has a long duration bleedings, is well worth imo.
Assassins vs berserker, pretty even.

In my early days I was using too strength and battle. But I really suggest you to swap one (swap strength cough) out for a sigil of force. You’ll be overbuffed if you stack some might yourself or if anyone else does it. You can keep up 9-12 stacks on your own with your skills, 9 with strength or battle (if using strength runes). But in a pt you’ll be capped. In bad groups or solo it may be better but … is that your goal?

Toybox.2940:

So I see no mention of dual pistol builds here. Which confuses me because as far as PvE goes, I find dual pistols to be much more effective than a shield or rifle in PvE combat.

You seem to be new? No offense if you arent >.< – The reason why pistol offhand isn’t that great is because the only thing it offers is a burn wich is outdamaged immediately with either rifle 3# or 5# or a blast finisher from the shield resulting into 3 stacks of might for everyone, inhale aaaaaand the 5# of the pistol is just a root wich you’ll never need, only against some bosses where rifle 2# or shield 5# twice can do the job too.

If you play condi in pve it’s the best choice to have a pistol offhand, but that’s only for soloing stuff. In dungeons condi is extremly bad cuz of the condi caps and is therefore a “tabu”.

I hope I could help questions? ^^

Xyonon.3987:

Toybox.2940:

So I see no mention of dual pistol builds here. Which confuses me because as far as PvE goes, I find dual pistols to be much more effective than a shield or rifle in PvE combat.

You seem to be new? No offense if you arent >.< – The reason why pistol offhand isn’t that great is because the only thing it offers is a burn wich is outdamaged immediately with either rifle 3# or 5# or a blast finisher from the shield resulting into 3 stacks of might for everyone, inhale aaaaaand the 5# of the pistol is just a root wich you’ll never need, only against some bosses where rifle 2# or shield 5# twice can do the job too.

If you play condi in pve it’s the best choice to have a pistol offhand, but that’s only for soloing stuff. In dungeons condi is extremly bad cuz of the condi caps and is therefore a “tabu”.

I hope I could help questions? ^^

I’m sorry, I don’t quite understand. The #5 ability on the dual pistol build is probably one of the most useful skills an engineer has. But then again, I play for survivability and not pure damage.

I am almost always the last one standing during mob situations when my party wipes and often I am the main thing that stands between victory and a pure party wipe.

The glue shot mixed with the bomb kit toolbelt skill is amazingly poweful as you can suddenly disorganize a group in a matter of seconds or get things off your tail. Granted, the dual pistol build does not have the DPS that other builds may have. But at the end of the day, Victory is judged by who is still standing, not who did the most damage.

Also, I’ve played Engineer since Beta. I did take a break for a year or so in between. The main issue I see with most common Engineer playstyles is that they are focusing on DPS and not the utility that the Engineer is capable of.

The engineer has never been a DPS class and trying to foce it to be one seems to just kitten it’s potential in my opinion.

To give you an example, I did a three man run in Caudicus’s manor (Story) at level 46. It was originally 4 but one oerson bailed. I was aware that we wouldn’t finish, but I decided to see how far we could go.

During the battle with the Golem in the courtyard, we had gotten it down to 1/3rd health before my teammates wiped. At that point I was forced to solo it for the last 3rd. I don’t have a lot of DPS, granted. But at the end of it, I was the last one standing.

Sadly, too many people seem too focused on damage output and not on what you can actually accomplish with your skills when utilized properly.

There’s nothing wrong with punching out DPS as an engineer, it just seems like a waste when it’s capable of so much more.

omg

15char

Xyonon.3987:

Ryn.6459:

I agree on precise sigjt. But strenght+ battle allows me to have 25 stacks of might in solo or bad groups.
Sharpnel has a long duration bleedings, is well worth imo.
Assassins vs berserker, pretty even.

In my early days I was using too strength and battle. But I really suggest you to swap one (swap strength cough) out for a sigil of force. You’ll be overbuffed if you stack some might yourself or if anyone else does it. You can keep up 9-12 stacks on your own with your skills, 9 with strength or battle (if using strength runes). But in a pt you’ll be capped. In bad groups or solo it may be better but … is that your goal?

In my hands: I stack 9 (12 if lucky) with firefields blasting, 6 with battle… so I really need strenght to go 20-25. As you, I only PuG and I never never ever never see 25 stacks of might party wide (unless provided for me). But fear not, I have a night/force riffle for those lottery pugs runs. I actually did the opposite, started with force/strenght and end up running with battle/strength XD

Toybox.2940:

Xyonon.3987:

Toybox.2940:

So I see no mention of dual pistol builds here. Which confuses me because as far as PvE goes, I find dual pistols to be much more effective than a shield or rifle in PvE combat.

You seem to be new? No offense if you arent >.< – The reason why pistol offhand isn’t that great is because the only thing it offers is a burn wich is outdamaged immediately with either rifle 3# or 5# or a blast finisher from the shield resulting into 3 stacks of might for everyone, inhale aaaaaand the 5# of the pistol is just a root wich you’ll never need, only against some bosses where rifle 2# or shield 5# twice can do the job too.

If you play condi in pve it’s the best choice to have a pistol offhand, but that’s only for soloing stuff. In dungeons condi is extremly bad cuz of the condi caps and is therefore a “tabu”.

I hope I could help questions? ^^

I’m sorry, I don’t quite understand. The #5 ability on the dual pistol build is probably one of the most useful skills an engineer has. But then again, I play for survivability and not pure damage.

I am almost always the last one standing during mob situations when my party wipes and often I am the main thing that stands between victory and a pure party wipe.

The glue shot mixed with the bomb kit toolbelt skill is amazingly poweful as you can suddenly disorganize a group in a matter of seconds or get things off your tail. Granted, the dual pistol build does not have the DPS that other builds may have. But at the end of the day, Victory is judged by who is still standing, not who did the most damage.

when perma cripple is the goal, you can achieve the same effect with sitting duck + exploit weakness (against a single target). you give up a semi-reliable 5% damage buff or bomb utility and either weapon cds, bad swiftness (for the vigor), or a tiny bit of extra vuln. in general, giving up rifle cds for perma cripple isnt a bad idea because that goal generally means you dont want to make full use of your rifles dps anyways cuz youre staying out of melee. if your choice is between p/p and p/s, id go with shield for the blast, pistol 4 does less damage than a bomb auto (and about as much as a nade auto) and offers no unique utility.

if you are trying to perma cripple groups of trash mobs, i just dont see the point. that doesnt help as much as killing them faster or simply dropping a smoke bomb.

you take a very pvp oriented view of “winning”. in pve, “winning” is more about who did something the fastest. not about who is alive. everyone can be alive at all times, because the minimum defense available is enough to ensure survival against unintelligent ai. in pvp, 5 bunkers wont be able to kill anything to gain an advantage. in pve, 5 bunkers just kill things slower.

I actually don’t play PvP at all. I just play utility more than damage. But hey, if it works it works, right? I’m not trying to say my build is “better” by any stretch. Both are still quite viable. I just don’t really understand the hate for dual pistol builds when they can be just as effective as others.

Again, I don’t PvP at all so I wouldn’t take my build into PvP and expect results. The build I use is specifically designed to manipulate enemy AI. Generally speaking, my job in dungeons is to draw attention away from the party so they can do what they need to do. In a sense, i usually play a makeshift tank more than DPS. But it’s the style I enjoy most.

Granted, I can see the appeal in using a shield in situations where you are facing a lot of ranged attackers and I may incorporate a shield for those specific situations. But overall, if it relies on mostly melee for damage, it more or less can rarely touch me, and that’s how I like it.

idk your play habits, i just said your mindset is something i would expect from a pvper, not a pver. one day you might learn pve just goes faster when everyone does dps because you can incorporate the necessary support and control without sacrificing damage. but i understand you wanna be a tank, i have a friend like that and hes great at it and i prefer dungeons with him there as opposed to a pug zerker cuz i know hes good enough to keep the rest of us silly zerkers alive. would it be better if he went dps? maybe, but then he wouldnt do silly things like facetank mai trin in a 50 fractal, which is actually quite a useful thing to be doing and makes my life a hell of a lot easier.

insanemaniac.2456:

idk your play habits, i just said your mindset is something i would expect from a pvper, not a pver. one day you might learn pve just goes faster when everyone does dps because you can incorporate the necessary support and control without sacrificing damage. but i understand you wanna be a tank, i have a friend like that and hes great at it and i prefer dungeons with him there as opposed to a pug zerker cuz i know hes good enough to keep the rest of us silly zerkers alive. would it be better if he went dps? maybe, but then he wouldnt do silly things like facetank mai trin in a 50 fractal, which is actually quite a useful thing to be doing and makes my life a hell of a lot easier.

Yeah. I mostly play with friends and only one of them is what I would consider “pro” at what they do. So I’ve gotten accustomed to being the glue that holds everything together. Yesterday we did a three man run of Ascalonian catacombs just to finish a daily. One was a level 80 warrior, I was about level 69 at the time, and our Ranger friend was level 42 . The warrior could take some hits but my job was basically keeping the mobs busy while he held the boss’s attention. The ranger was still learning ranger so he was mostly along for the ride. We died about 3 times total (Mainly due to that kitten troll) but otherwise managed to get through it just fine.

My build is mostly for handling these types of situations.

@Toybox – hm i’m not quite sure what you want to achieve. The offhand pisotl is a condition dps weapon with a long cd cc. If you want more damage or the root you should take the rifle with a 10 sec cd root. The only reason you mention is the aoe immobilize and cribble. I don’t want to tell you “you can’t be a good engineer when you use a pistol offhand”. But I’m telling you that it’s not quite optimal in pve.

Btw this sentence:

Toybox.2940:

The main issue I see with most common Engineer playstyles is that they are focusing on DPS and not the utility that the Engineer is capable of.

The engineer has never been a DPS class and trying to foce it to be one seems to just kitten it’s potential in my opinion.

The engineer has the 2nd highest dps in aoe and the 3rd highest in single target dps (ignoring mesmer with sometimes good sometimes bad dps stuff). As long as you adapt a few traits and change the utility skills according to the situation, you’ll have all the utility you need. The engineer is the allrounder in gw2, he can do literally EVERYTHING except for sustaining stability. The only downside is it’s complicated and takes a high apm and expirience.

Xyonon.3987:

@Toybox – hm i’m not quite sure what you want to achieve. The offhand pisotl is a condition dps weapon with a long cd cc. If you want more damage or the root you should take the rifle with a 10 sec cd root. The only reason you mention is the aoe immobilize and cribble. I don’t want to tell you “you can’t be a good engineer when you use a pistol offhand”. But I’m telling you that it’s not quite optimal in pve.

Btw this sentence:

Toybox.2940:

The main issue I see with most common Engineer playstyles is that they are focusing on DPS and not the utility that the Engineer is capable of.

The engineer has never been a DPS class and trying to foce it to be one seems to just kitten it’s potential in my opinion.

The engineer has the 2nd highest dps in aoe and the 3rd highest in single target dps (ignoring mesmer with sometimes good sometimes bad dps stuff). As long as you adapt a few traits and change the utility skills according to the situation, you’ll have all the utility you need. The engineer is the allrounder in gw2, he can do literally EVERYTHING except for sustaining stability. The only downside is it’s complicated and takes a high apm and expirience.

You know, It’s strange. I mained Rifle for the longest time before I took a break. I then came back and it felt different and quite underwhelming. The thing is that the rifle is great for 1v1 combat, I will give it that. But your net shot is not going to stop a horde of 5 enemies all trying to tear you a new one. A glue shot will. The main funtion of my engineer is to go into combat with 6-8 enemies and still come out on top. A rifle just does not have the ability to handle that many enemies at once.

Plus, I use coated bullets on my pistol shots. The thing is that what makes my build effective is that I use crits as a utility. Crits are nice for damage but I maximize my crit procs. Currently, whenever I crit with anything, it has the following effects: 50% chance to give me swiftness, 50% chance of life steal, 50% chance to cause bleeding, 100% to cause burning. Once I get my grandmaster trait, I will also be dropping mines every time I crit. The pistol has a faster fire speed than the rifle as well, especially with the poison shot volley, and with peircing ammo, hits groups of enemies. So basically this maximizes my chance to crit more than anything else, which is the main focus of the build.

Toybox.2940:

Xyonon.3987:

@Toybox – hm i’m not quite sure what you want to achieve. The offhand pisotl is a condition dps weapon with a long cd cc. If you want more damage or the root you should take the rifle with a 10 sec cd root. The only reason you mention is the aoe immobilize and cribble. I don’t want to tell you “you can’t be a good engineer when you use a pistol offhand”. But I’m telling you that it’s not quite optimal in pve.

Btw this sentence:

Toybox.2940:

The main issue I see with most common Engineer playstyles is that they are focusing on DPS and not the utility that the Engineer is capable of.

The engineer has never been a DPS class and trying to foce it to be one seems to just kitten it’s potential in my opinion.

The engineer has the 2nd highest dps in aoe and the 3rd highest in single target dps (ignoring mesmer with sometimes good sometimes bad dps stuff). As long as you adapt a few traits and change the utility skills according to the situation, you’ll have all the utility you need. The engineer is the allrounder in gw2, he can do literally EVERYTHING except for sustaining stability. The only downside is it’s complicated and takes a high apm and expirience.

You know, It’s strange. I mained Rifle for the longest time before I took a break. I then came back and it felt different and quite underwhelming. The thing is that the rifle is great for 1v1 combat, I will give it that. But your net shot is not going to stop a horde of 5 enemies all trying to tear you a new one. A glue shot will. The main funtion of my engineer is to go into combat with 6-8 enemies and still come out on top. A rifle just does not have the ability to handle that many enemies at once.

Plus, I use coated bullets on my pistol shots. The thing is that what makes my build effective is that I use crits as a utility. Crits are nice for damage but I maximize my crit procs. Currently, whenever I crit with anything, it has the following effects: 50% chance to give me swiftness, 50% chance of life steal, 50% chance to cause bleeding, 100% to cause burning. Once I get my grandmaster trait, I will also be dropping mines every time I crit. The pistol has a faster fire speed than the rifle as well, especially with the poison shot volley, and with peircing ammo, hits groups of enemies. So basically this maximizes my chance to crit more than anything else, which is the main focus of the build.

you sir still have a lot to learn

insanemaniac.2456:

Toybox.2940:

Xyonon.3987:

@Toybox – hm i’m not quite sure what you want to achieve. The offhand pisotl is a condition dps weapon with a long cd cc. If you want more damage or the root you should take the rifle with a 10 sec cd root. The only reason you mention is the aoe immobilize and cribble. I don’t want to tell you “you can’t be a good engineer when you use a pistol offhand”. But I’m telling you that it’s not quite optimal in pve.

Btw this sentence:

Toybox.2940:

The main issue I see with most common Engineer playstyles is that they are focusing on DPS and not the utility that the Engineer is capable of.

The engineer has never been a DPS class and trying to foce it to be one seems to just kitten it’s potential in my opinion.

The engineer has the 2nd highest dps in aoe and the 3rd highest in single target dps (ignoring mesmer with sometimes good sometimes bad dps stuff). As long as you adapt a few traits and change the utility skills according to the situation, you’ll have all the utility you need. The engineer is the allrounder in gw2, he can do literally EVERYTHING except for sustaining stability. The only downside is it’s complicated and takes a high apm and expirience.

You know, It’s strange. I mained Rifle for the longest time before I took a break. I then came back and it felt different and quite underwhelming. The thing is that the rifle is great for 1v1 combat, I will give it that. But your net shot is not going to stop a horde of 5 enemies all trying to tear you a new one. A glue shot will. The main funtion of my engineer is to go into combat with 6-8 enemies and still come out on top. A rifle just does not have the ability to handle that many enemies at once.

Plus, I use coated bullets on my pistol shots. The thing is that what makes my build effective is that I use crits as a utility. Crits are nice for damage but I maximize my crit procs. Currently, whenever I crit with anything, it has the following effects: 50% chance to give me swiftness, 50% chance of life steal, 50% chance to cause bleeding, 100% to cause burning. Once I get my grandmaster trait, I will also be dropping mines every time I crit. The pistol has a faster fire speed than the rifle as well, especially with the poison shot volley, and with peircing ammo, hits groups of enemies. So basically this maximizes my chance to crit more than anything else, which is the main focus of the build.

you sir still have a lot to learn

About what, exactly? My engineer works great in PvE. I don’t really know what I’m missing here.

On top of this, I just hit 80 with it tonight, which unlocked my grandmaster traits. I also have a trait from the alchemy tree that gives me Vigor whenever I gain swiftness, which is basically 100% of the time while I’m in combat. I also just picked up Bunker Down, which now also drops mines on a crit.

So to recap, when I crit, which is 9 times out of 10 at this point, I cause bleeding, burning, gain life, gain swiftness and vigor, and drop a mine. Off basically any attack I have available, including dodging (as I leave bombs behind when I dodge as well). So yeah… I don’t think I have a lot to learn. If you mean “Play an engineer like an elementalist” sure, I don’t really know how to do that, because I could just play an elementalist at that point.

you sir still have a lot to learn

And frankly, you just hit 80 and claim that you know almost eveything? lol

Yo Toybox, I’d really like to meet you ingame if you want Well – aslong as you are on EU :P

You trait the pistol for piercing but why? The rifle pierces by default. The aoe rambo engi style is the bombs job – blind, immobilize, big ol’ bombing the enemies into (!) a wall and you just disbled them for more than enough time to completly destroy them.

Also when you crit: bleeding from traits is 15% chance (45% with grenades), burning has an intern cd of 10 sec (every 10 sec ONE target), life steal has 5 sec cooldown to be triggered again, only swiftness and vigor is great indeed. Bunker down is sadly often just less damage than “modified ammunation”. The problem with bunker down is, that if you spawn a mine under the feet of an enemy, it won’t explode. They have to walk over it to trigger it. But even then, most of the time those 2% damage per condition is just superior. Still love to hear that “piip piip” sound