Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone,

I am pretty new to engineer, currently leveling after switching from ele (I like the jack-of-all trades approach). I was really hoping for some feedback on a close-range control build that focuses on maintaining 100% close-range chill while conditioning down foes (as something to build towards). The motivation for this build is to make use of the following capabilities:

1.) On-swap sigils proc on kits!
2.) On-heal runes proc on switching to the med-kit (limited only by the internal cooldown of the sigil)!
3.) PvE/WvW has some great opportunities for condition duration using giver’s weapons (10% condi duration), +Condi duration food (up to +40%), and +condi duration from the explosives line

Trying to combine these three things together so that passively maintains a good amount of area control (each kit swap applies 6.6 s of chill, and swapping to the med-kit does as well, with a 10s and 9s cooldown respectively) while you whittle away, I came up with the following build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqel0piY3zSgF17IyoCdmoH5nlpffewWpFEC-jAyAYNhQCUQIDg5xioxW/KiGrmBTtSEV7VKiWtUAQsGA-e

The idea is to keep your enemy hobbled/stunned/controlled at all times, while maintaining superior movement (swiftness/vigor) for yourself at all times. Testing this out in the mists gets a decent idea and performs fairly well at maintaining chill on targets, but there is 60% less condition duration than is achievable with giver’s weapons + food.

Bombs and Nades seem like the obvious choice as you want the condition duration from their lines, and the constant chill in close-range makes actually landing them much easier. The elixer is for extra condi removal (besides the med-kit) while Protection injection is chosen to passively mitigate stuns (as an alternative to taking a stun-breaker).

Any feedback is appreciated, and I will be updating this as I level and can really test it out more.

I have to say that even in PVE the onswitch freeze sigil works well for the bomb kit cause it does damage and it holds them in place while you’re running around dropping bombs.

decent build, although why apothecary? healing scales terribly and your damage will be even worse, oh and backpack regen doesn’t scale at all with heal power. The only reason to go that deep in Alchemy is if your stacking boons. If you want to keep the Heal Power I would go with Elixir gun instead of bomb kit, super elixir scales decently, and you get a nice long regen (which can be used while stunned). The E-gun pumps out conditions nicely too. Last thing I’ll mention is take a second pistol, the extra burn and immob/cripple just goes with the theme of your build

I’ve thought of focusing on Chill as well. I often use Superior Sigil of Ice on one of my Pistols in P/P builds. Chill is one of those conditions that you MUST address in WvW. I hate when my little Asura does the “Chill Waddle”.

Very nice idea for a build. I would also note that backpack regenerator does not benefit from healing power. Changing either the bomb kit or elixir C for the elixir gun would use your healing power better. I currently run apothecary gear with elixir gun.

Also note that the elixir gun super elixir also removes conditions if you want to change from elixir C.

Another option for a trait is to change Incendiary Power to Forceful Explosives to increase the range of your bombs.

Victoitor.2917:

Very nice idea for a build. I would also note that backpack regenerator does not benefit from healing power. Changing either the bomb kit or elixir C for the elixir gun would use your healing power better. I currently run apothecary gear with elixir gun.

Also note that the elixir gun super elixir also removes conditions if you want to change from elixir C.

Another option for a trait is to change Incendiary Power to Forceful Explosives to increase the range of your bombs.

There’s a ton of problems with skills not being affected by +healing on engineers.

@Linc

Thanks! I chose apothecary b/c I wanted to maintain a good amount of healing. Also, the toughness, condi damage, and healing were all stats that I wanted. Precision (rabid gear) and vitality (carrion) aren’t things I value as much as toughness and healing power in a build that is meant to fight longer, controlled fights. That being said, a little higher condi-damage through jewels might be warranted.

I also don’t want to give up the bombs, as they are very fun with chills. Its a decent active defense for controlling an area. If only chill affected initiative regen rates. I did think about elixir gun, but have very little experience with it. Finally, I really want the shield as it adds some extra control with stuns on the 5-skill, and I really wanted the blast-finisher to help enable get-aways in wvw (blast that smoke-bomb field).

@ Soon
I agree! I think chill is actually one of the most powerful conditions out there. It is usually pretty hard to find long-duration sources of chill.

@Victoitor
I really like some of these suggestions. I was unaware of the condition removal from super-elixir (which is absolutely awesome!!), with additional removal from the light-field projectiles. Also, the additional blast-finisher from the 4-skill will work quite nicely with what I am trying to do. It would be ideal if “fast-acting elixirs” trait properly worked with the gun skills 4 and 5 and toolbelt skills. I really would like to keep protection injection (still lack stunbreak), and this skill would fit PERFECTLY with the goals of the build.

I was at a toss-up between forceful explosives and incendiary power. On the one-hand it makes loading up other conditions easier. On the other-hand, it removes a good amount of access to burning, which is a great dps condition. However, with the low-crit chance, I think it is better to go with the dual pistols. While we lose a blast-finisher, we keep the access to burning, while also making the bombs/nades better.

I also think that automated-response will serve this build better on the long-term survival front rather than backpack regenerator, although I will probably trait to use fast-acting elixirs when it is fixed. I love me my blast finishers and healing skills :-).

Finally, I thought about pistol skill reductions, but I don’t think its worth it as this build has access to so many skills and none of thee pistol skills are absolutely required. It has short enough recharges on the 4 skill to maintain a good amount of burning.

Here is the updated build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqal0piY3zyuF17IyoCdmoH5n+5YfeIXpFEC-jAyAYNhQCUQIDg5xioxW/KiGrmBTtSEV7RKiWtUAQsGA-e

I must say, I really like that this build has so much control and can be so surgical if we micromanage conditions and don’t just try to spam skills down the line. It feels good working towards the point where I can pick the right skill from the right kit for the right situation. Kinda like my ele was supposed to be.

Thanks for all of the feedback so far.

tigirius.9014:

Victoitor.2917:

Very nice idea for a build. I would also note that backpack regenerator does not benefit from healing power. Changing either the bomb kit or elixir C for the elixir gun would use your healing power better. I currently run apothecary gear with elixir gun.

Also note that the elixir gun super elixir also removes conditions if you want to change from elixir C.

Another option for a trait is to change Incendiary Power to Forceful Explosives to increase the range of your bombs.

There’s a ton of problems with skills not being affected by +healing on engineers.

On a side note, Healing Bombs works quite well with +healing however. Still loving that aspect of Engy. Bombs plus EG here.

At any rate, I am pretty interested in how Mr. Beard progresses with a Chill build. Because Bombs are so powerful you can likely focus build for Chill without losing much. Nice synergy.

Whelm.9072:

tigirius.9014:

Victoitor.2917:

Very nice idea for a build. I would also note that backpack regenerator does not benefit from healing power. Changing either the bomb kit or elixir C for the elixir gun would use your healing power better. I currently run apothecary gear with elixir gun.

Also note that the elixir gun super elixir also removes conditions if you want to change from elixir C.

Another option for a trait is to change Incendiary Power to Forceful Explosives to increase the range of your bombs.

There’s a ton of problems with skills not being affected by +healing on engineers.

On a side note, Healing Bombs works quite well with +healing however. Still loving that aspect of Engy. Bombs plus EG here.

At any rate, I am pretty interested in how Mr. Beard progresses with a Chill build. Because Bombs are so powerful you can likely focus build for Chill without losing much. Nice synergy.

I have a serious question about this. After doing the calculation for the healing bombs, I realized that they tick for less than 300 per detonation, and are on par with regeneration. This is based on a healing power of about 1000, or what you would get with healing as a secondary stat on a FULL set exotic gear (including trinkets) with 300 into Toughness traits for the healing bombs. Healing can MAX OUT at less that 1600 if you focus it on all your gear, runes, sigils and traits… but at 1600 this BARELY breaks 300 pts per bomb.

What is the benefit of this low amount of healing in any real conflict where most players are dodge-rolling out of the red circles and watching for a certain attack? Or in WvW, most don’t stand still, unless they are on a ram, and at that point, 1 arrow cart out damages both the healing bombs and the regen.

The benefit of stacking any healing power on an engineer still eludes me, and I run elixir gun/heal turret in dungeons daily.

You drop bombs every .5 sec. So it is 600 healing a second from healing bombs. Regen ticks every second. Maxed out healing bombs gets you around 1k hp/sec.

lunyboy.8672:

Whelm.9072:

tigirius.9014:

Victoitor.2917:

Very nice idea for a build. I would also note that backpack regenerator does not benefit from healing power. Changing either the bomb kit or elixir C for the elixir gun would use your healing power better. I currently run apothecary gear with elixir gun.

Also note that the elixir gun super elixir also removes conditions if you want to change from elixir C.

Another option for a trait is to change Incendiary Power to Forceful Explosives to increase the range of your bombs.

There’s a ton of problems with skills not being affected by +healing on engineers.

On a side note, Healing Bombs works quite well with +healing however. Still loving that aspect of Engy. Bombs plus EG here.

At any rate, I am pretty interested in how Mr. Beard progresses with a Chill build. Because Bombs are so powerful you can likely focus build for Chill without losing much. Nice synergy.

I have a serious question about this. After doing the calculation for the healing bombs, I realized that they tick for less than 300 per detonation, and are on par with regeneration. This is based on a healing power of about 1000, or what you would get with healing as a secondary stat on a FULL set exotic gear (including trinkets) with 300 into Toughness traits for the healing bombs. Healing can MAX OUT at less that 1600 if you focus it on all your gear, runes, sigils and traits… but at 1600 this BARELY breaks 300 pts per bomb.

What is the benefit of this low amount of healing in any real conflict where most players are dodge-rolling out of the red circles and watching for a certain attack? Or in WvW, most don’t stand still, unless they are on a ram, and at that point, 1 arrow cart out damages both the healing bombs and the regen.

The benefit of stacking any healing power on an engineer still eludes me, and I run elixir gun/heal turret in dungeons daily.

Without derailing this thread I think it can work well for frontline tank-type engineers. If you have decent +healing and going heavy into Inventions line it works at that spot. The fast casting nature of the bombs and the AoE stacking possibilities simply add up. Bomb 1 spam is decent damage/heal when tactical options are out. Simply put, for some, it all adds up especially in a bunker situation.

I can see where it would be situational for some battles but it synergizes with some neat builds.

Whelm.9072:

Without derailing this thread I think it can work well for frontline tank-type engineers. If you have decent +healing and going heavy into Inventions line it works at that spot. The fast casting nature of the bombs and the AoE stacking possibilities simply add up. Bomb 1 spam is decent damage/heal when tactical options are out. Simply put, for some, it all adds up especially in a bunker situation.

I can see where it would be situational for some battles but it synergizes with some neat builds.

^^ This. I have run a full cleric’s bomb build in wvw and it worked quite nicely. I used healing turret as well. BoB, turret overcharge and explode, magnetic shield/inversion provides nice burst heal and area clearing on top of the normal bomb ticks.

I had a similar build that could put out chill permanently on a target.
By using Chill on crit and 10% chill duration sigils. 3x 20%+ chill duration sets of runes. and 30 points in explosives for grenadier will you get 100% chill durration. Also take cooldown reduction for grenades and bombs so you can use your chill grenades more.

The chill grenades deliver 3x 2 sec chills that stacks to 6 sec in total plus the 100% chill durration inscreese that to 12 sec. The chill grenades are on a 16 sec cooldown so you only need to proc the sigil (grants 4 sec chill with the 100% chill durration) once (it have a 10 sec cooldown= durring the 12 sec your chill grenades are active. In most cases will the chill grenades themself proc this sigil, but if they don’t, just keep spamming the other grenades.

So with food can you get additional 40% condition durration, remember that all condition durration stacks at 100% so if you are going to use this then replace two of your runesets that grants 20% chill durration (40% in total). You can replace it with other condition durration sets or maybe more runes that grant chill. Since your chill will last 100% longer, other conditions will last 70% longer would I recommend two sets of additional bleed durration so bleeds end up on 100% too (they have a base durration of 12 sec from your 2# skill and traited explosives.

Wenrolio.8063:

You drop bombs every .5 sec. So it is 600 healing a second from healing bombs. Regen ticks every second. Maxed out healing bombs gets you around 1k hp/sec.

Huh, well that is interesting.

Thanks for all the good posts, folks. I had never seriously considered bombs for anything but high damage in a Knight’s build.