Guild Wars 2

Hey guys – i’ve played Engineer since release, and i really enjoy the class, especially for small scale pvp and spvp.

However, when i’m in a guild raid in WvW, and encounter a 30vs30 fight or more, i can’t really figure out a build to be useful.

Useful options in theory and why i can’t use them:

Healing option:
Elixir gun : It is a light field, healing in WvW using Water field so it’s not that useful in large scale.

AoE Dmg option:
Flamethrower: You one shot yourself with retaliation..
Grenade Kit: One shot yourself with retaliation.

I feel my only use is fire field with bomb kit and shield 4 blast finisher..

How can i build a GOOD engineer in large scale WvW?

If you’re running in a large group in WvWvW, it doesn’t matter which class you are playing, build for group support. I don’t mean healing necessarily (even though I run healing bombs a lot), but use skills that do something for or share with allies.

I’m currently traited 20/0/30/10/10 with Elixir Infused Bombs, Healing Turret, P/S, Elixir R and Elixir Gun. And I do AoE combos left and right.

You could try to go for a lot of fields (Healing Turret, Bombs etc.) and Blast Finishers (Thumper Turret yay) and support your group with Area Might and Area Heal. Area Stealth can be nice, too. Engineer has so many Blast Finishers, you can blast all day.

Grenades. Give a kitten on retaliation – use Protection, ask your necro friend to remove boons, stack health up to 25k+. Easy.

Depends of the style of these large battles, if it’s a total mess, support is prefered, if it’s two separate groups fighting eachother, you can do wonders with your tool kit and your rifle.

In a large group, I would say that you should center your build around ranged damage and healing/condition removal from allies. I run with the rifle/EG/Tool Kit/FT – and alternate with the Med Kit and Healing Turret as the case may be.

The strategic use of the Supply Crate has (at least in my imagination) turned the tide numerous times when there is a stalemate (at a bridge for example). I think the Engineers are, more than any profession, capable of directing the movement of large crowds.

Also, the Acid Bomb is the gift that keeps on giving — when dropped in a group. I’ve sometimes seen 20 hits registered across several enemies. And the FT Flame Blast when crit’ing against a gathered group, can deal some awesome damage.

Forestnator.6298:

Grenades. Give a kitten on retaliation – use Protection, ask your necro friend to remove boons, stack health up to 25k+. Easy.

Protection will not affect retal damage. Stacking hp will work, as well as keeping a friendly guardian or ele nearby to stack some heals. With 25kish hp, you can do a lot of grenading before retaliation starts to hurt.

I’d say the number one thing is that you should not be afraid to swap your skills around in combat.

I typically run toolkit, elixir s, elixir b, and supply crate as my default utility setup. However, at times, swapping certain things in and out can be helpful.

Swapping elixir gun in and or out is also recommended in certain situations.

For example, I find the following combo extremely effective when fighting people that are next to a cliff or bridge. Elixir S into the center of them, pop elixir u + elixir x(hope for tornado), blow about 1/3 to 2/3 of them off the cliff/bridge while tagging all or most them, toolkit shield to get away from them alive.

Eh, with all respect to the person posting above, unless it was changed for the better in the patch, I do not recommend elixir infused bombs.

I use Tool Kit, Grenade Kit, and either Elixir U or Elixir S. Berserker’s/Rampager’s/Valkyrie gear with Ruby Orbs on everything. Nice mix of HP/Damage for soloing in WvW. Although, it’s not all that helpful in a group fight as the biggest thing you’re bringing is a pull and lots of AoE damage.

Grenade kit for ranged damage output. Retaliation exists, deal with it – it’s a hard counter to engineers in WvW, not a lot of options except to manage yourself and make sure you’re attacking at 1500 range, where only silly rangers and siege weapons can hope to hit you.

Toolkit for two things – one, it’s your ‘OH ****’ button with gear shield. Two, it’s your GET OVER HERE insta-gib button with magnet, which you then follow up with net shot, grenade barrage, overcharged shot, etc – point is, easy kills in large scale battles.

Elixir S, for another ‘OH ****’ button. You can never have enough of these.

If you’re defending on a keep, swap out elixir S for either elixir gun (super elixir, acid bomb), or flamethrower (fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh through doors works great as long as they don’t have retaliation, and air blast does too – if they have retaliation, back off and grab throw mine and retrait for larger mines & bombs, helps a LOT).

I favor dual pistols with Coated Bullets and Elixir U. You will literally tag every red name in that zerg with 0 issue in addition to doing some solid aoe with Explosive Shot (pistol 1). A well placed toss of elixir U will get you close enough to the zerg to use some of your short range skills.

Criselli.7462:

I favor dual pistols with Coated Bullets and Elixir U. You will literally tag every red name in that zerg with 0 issue in addition to doing some solid aoe with Explosive Shot (pistol 1). A well placed toss of elixir U will get you close enough to the zerg to use some of your short range skills.

This. Mask’s dueling build is surprisingly effective at large scale WvW for a few reasons:

1. Good survivability. Toolkit shield and elixir S give you something like 8 seconds on invulnerability when chained.
2. Lot’s of AoE abilities. Pistol 1 can actually do great damage if you find out where your enemy is stacking. The explosion+piercing effects become pronounced.
3. toolkit’s pull is great for getting some overextended idiot into your zerg. Pull a clothy into your group and its practically a free kill. Remember you can keep channeling it while you move…

I actually run a version of TankCat. When I run WvW it’s almost always with at least a small group of my guild and we have commanders so the zerg usually follows. As such the one thing that is always lacking, and that we need, is smart players playing a Tank that can push the other zerg back.

Everyone plays dmg and it’s doesn’t really make a difference, but if you can run straight into the middle of a zerg and draw all of their attacks on you, or at least most, while your group is picking them off it really makes the difference.

And with TankCat it’s really not hard, toolkit #4, some dodges, elix s, toolkit #4 again, medkit to run around to get some heals / drop conditions + toolbelt heal, then elix s trait when you hit 25%, run back a little and heal then run right back into them. Sadly it really rely’s on blocking, elix s invulnerably and dodging. Which really makes me feel like a wanna be gaurd

There’s more to it though, i.e. using the shield skills and pistol #3 to disable them or supply crate into 6 of them to stun and Prybar their main dmg dealers, but you get the point. I find it very helpful and I’m always receiving praise for the job well done and for really making the difference.

My only debate is between elix b and bomb kit for retaliation vs. BoB as running into the zerg and dropping a BoB can be very usefull CC wise (especially in a tower when you blow them off the wall), not to mention the other bombs. However at the same time retaliation can really hurt the zerg once they focus you.

Anyways you get the point

I have been making an effort to avoid large zerg battles because of the horrendous skill lag they produce.

Since the Engineer is riddled with cast-time skills I can hardly ever get a skill off.

Since other profession have much easier access to certain condition skills that are instant and easier to cast I usually get loaded down before I can even attack.

Most Zerg battles go like this for me.
Stack Might or w/e in my own zerg then we all rush in.
Before I can even land an autoattack I end up with 15+ stacks of confusion.
While spamming w/e condition cleanser I have and watching it blink and do nothing I end up with just about every other condition in the game.
So my Zerg battle ends with either me lag dying after hitting 2-3 ppl or me running out of the battle trying to get far enough away for my heal to work.

Soooooo…….
I have since just let Zergs rush eachother and I just stay on the sides and run up to all the Rangers,Necros & Eles that just stand in one spot spamming a key and I smack them with prybar and static shot and watch them kill themselves because they play like bots.

I am on a Teir 1 server and this is all that happens anymore on our home BL, both opposing servers run in 50+ zergs ( basically the entire map pop ) so WvW battles are nothing more than huge lagfests where more than likely the ones that win are the ones with more ppl, because of the other genius mechanic of being able to rez ppl faster than they can be killed by 3 enemies.

Ahh, well luckily I don’t have any lag problems really. Sometimes I have slight lag issues but when that’s the case I’ll just switch to performance mode on the graphics settings (I run high Quality). I guess my home built PC runs GW2 pretty well

Speaking of which, perhaps this is why my Tank build works so well as I can run into the enemy zerg with no problem and run around tagging different people.

narcky.2187:

Ahh, well luckily I don’t have any lag problems really. Sometimes I have slight lag issues but when that’s the case I’ll just switch to performance mode on the graphics settings (I run high Quality). I guess my home built PC runs GW2 pretty well

Speaking of which, perhaps this is why my Tank build works so well as I can run into the enemy zerg with no problem and run around tagging different people.

I normally run on High/Ultra settings and have no problem in PvE or smaller scale fighting in WvW.
But Skill Lag isn’t on the PC side its on the server side and in Teir 1 you can get Skill Lag even when you are by yourself on the otherside of the map.
The way I understand it is that when so many players on the same map are all hitting skills at the same time it lags out the server.
Its the same that happens when Jormag(any dragon) spawns.

I envy all the lower tier servers who don’t have to deal with it.
Don’t aspire to be Tier 1 because 50+vs50+vs50+ all in the Garri as the same time is all it is.
And autoattacking is all you can do.