Guild Wars 2

Ele can beat engy DPS ONLY on targets with large hitboxes. Thief cannot out DPS a properly played engy.

Knox.8962:

Ele can beat engy DPS ONLY on targets with large hitboxes. Thief cannot out DPS a properly played engy.

Good to know, I hadn’t seen much about thief lately so I was just assuming.

On top of that, passive damage via vuln kicks in – ye – we’re awesome! B¬)

Phineas Poe.3018:

Knox.8962:

The condi engineer currently has the highest DPS in the game.

Four ice bows will still drop most bosses faster than the time it takes for a condi engi to ramp up his damage.

Just something to keep in mind.

You just compared the damage from four people to the damage from one person.

Canakun.8031:

Phineas Poe.3018:

Knox.8962:

The condi engineer currently has the highest DPS in the game.

Four ice bows will still drop most bosses faster than the time it takes for a condi engi to ramp up his damage.

Just something to keep in mind.

You just compared the damage from four people to the damage from one person.

And you overlooked his point. That with burst damage the way it is you don’t have time to ramp up. It’s one of the down sides of the condi build. You don’t start pulling ahead until 14s in (assuming perfect rotations in regards to power and condi)

Canakun.8031:

Phineas Poe.3018:

Knox.8962:

The condi engineer currently has the highest DPS in the game.

Four ice bows will still drop most bosses faster than the time it takes for a condi engi to ramp up his damage.

Just something to keep in mind.

You just compared the damage from four people to the damage from one person.

All I said is that it’s something to keep in mind. Please don’t get overly defensive.

The average “ideal” dungeon group has two (sometimes three) elementalists. Condition builds are good after that ramp-up period, but if a boss gets dropped before that point, which happens relatively often for a lot of dungeon paths, you have to ask yourself just what you’re getting out of it.

It’s also important to note that condition damage builds do worse the lower your level, so the farther away you get from level 80 the worse the gap gets. And while it’s true that most dungeon fights at level 80 do demand a certain amount of time that would allow the condi build room to shine, I think it’s very important that those exceptions and asterisks are made visible to incoming engineers.

I’ve already given my reasons for why I’ll continue to use my rifle, but I’m sure other people will feel differently on the matter. At the end of the day, it’s just important that everyone is aware of what’s truly being gained and lost here.

People often just don’t want to hear or to accept that there is other viable stuff too, different than that what they have learned and expicienced in the past years.

Condi has it’s place and time to shine, but with the current content, power shines more often, even in fotm. Yet being aware of condi engi being the potential highest dps ingame is a good thing to know, as Phineas said.

I’ve been paying particular close attention to this topic. Over the years I’ve used my Engi for every facet of this game with great success but until this topic have always considered them mediocre in dungeons.
Oh sure, I get through them and have a great time doing it but it just seems like I could be doing more to contribute.
Prior to the patch I was enjoying PvP but now find it so difficult I no longer find it fun. I can only take getting obliterated by Mesmer’s and Ele’s so much before I tire of it.

So I’ve moved on to Fractals. I’ve never done them before so like everything else in this game I just grab my Engi and go. I’ve gotten to level 4 and all is well but I watch the other 4 members of my party and they seem to having a much easier time of time it.
I fully understand this is a learn to play thing but prior to this topic I was getting ready to start gearing up my Guardian for nothing but Fractal runs.
I was very happy to see from this thread that Fractals are perfectly viable with an Engineer.
Could someone please post the best builds for dungeons and Fractals. I expect there will be a slight difference between the two.
Thank you,

@Chiller Killer Czar:

There you go!

Some trait things to mention:

• For dungeons: At “Firearms” change “Heavy Armor Exploit” to “High Caliber”. You’ll always be in melee there. As for fractals you will only be part time so close to make use of this. “Heavy Armor Exploit” increases party dps, whereas “High Caliber” increases your personal dps. This one is kinda personal taste.
• At “Tools” you can change “Streamlined Kits” to “Takedown Round” for a tiny bit more dps but losing permaswiftness and some quite useful abilities. I only suggest to do this for dungeons.
• At “Tools” you can change “Kinetic Battery” to “Adrenal Implant”. I only suggest to do this at the beginning or when you feel you need “perma vigor”. “Kinetic Battery” allows you to do some crazy stuff, either dmg or heal or double reflection walls etc. You have to get used to it. Keep in mind that “Adrenal Implant” won’t stack with vigor. So it’s just “perma vigor”.
• At “Tools” don’t take “Static Discharge” since it screws up your skill queueing due a bug. I’d also only suggest “SD” for dungeons, not for fractals since it only works well in hugging distance to your enemy with the meta toolbelt skills, wich is not optimal in fractals. Also the stunbreak will help you out so many times in fotm, trust me, you’ll start to notice it.

Utility skills to mention:

• Bombs instead of Flame Thrower for aoe around, blind (wall e.g.) and stealth (snowblind e.g.).
• Mines instead of Elixier Gun for boonstrip (ascalon or dredge e.g.)
• Elixier U instead of Elixier Gun for projectile defense (harpy e.g.)
• Elixier S for it’s toolbelt stealth to add 5 more sec of aoe stealth (note that stealth only stacks 5 times, so usually with blast finishers you stack 5x 3sec stealth – so wait at least 3 sec to use elixier s toolbelt otherwise it will have no effect)
• Elixier R for some “I know they are gonna die” situations :P
• Thumper turret for 3 blast finishers (if you have to stealth all on your own … you might aswell use a shield to not get utility slot blocked :P)
• Tool Kit for block n’ pull (Mai Thrin e.g.)

Oh boy, became a wall’o’text – but I hope you found what you were looking for

greez Ziggy! =^._.^=