Guild Wars 2

Introduction

Hey, Sil here, some might already know me. After doing some videos and due to the increasing amount of people asking me about details of my build, well, there’s me attempting to write a guide. So let’s start this.
Oh and here’s the link already for the impatient ones: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vcAQFAUlUUpkr1UxdLseRiM6BpJabWIFS49BqQe9pAdB-zEyAYLAKEQCsIasVyioxqXwUuLqW/C4NwIFwSKjA-w
And here are some videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/Algeyr/videos
The build focuses on CC and damge. Control the fight and you win. Loose control and die. Hit your kitten , dodge their kitten . Make enemies your pin ball. (Disclaimer: not so funny as this might sound in fights vs. ranged opponents)
Mind the build probably isn’t something fitting for new and/or lesser experienced players since it lacks passive defenses. I won’t stop anybody from trying it though

So here comes the boring part. You know, these walls of text that only describe things you think you already know. Skills, traits… Like you wouldn’t already know their effects… Well, skipping at own risk – there might be some useful information. It’s basically the base for what comes afterwards (or sometimes later, when I get myself motivated to write about “special” tactics vs. certain builds).

Weapon

Rifle. Pretty obvious, is it not?

• Hip Shot: your classic ranged attack to keep some sustain damage. Pierces.
• Net Shot: good immobilizer, tends to get stuck in uneven terrain and won’t hit much at max range. Works better at close to medium range
• Blunderbuss: Good damage in melee. If you’re fighting a kiter, also use it at higher ranges (400-500) if you aren’t about to spike. It’s faster cast and more damage than Hip Shot. Also a good skill to use through walls/pillars when someone wants to use LOS.
• Overcharged Shot: Your enemies’ boon and bane. It can backfire when you don’t hit but it will put your foe in an unpleasant position when you do.
• Jump Shot: Mobility and high damage. Can be used to jump over gaps where your enemies can’t follow (e.g. at the north of BL ruins you can jump over the water)

Utilities

Healing Turret (+Regenerating Mist):
Strong heal with water field and cond remove. Feel free to use finishers like Jump Shot, Acid Bomb or turret detonations with it. Double tap 6 and detonate the turret or pick it up for healing. Throw it least one other finishers in there or detonating isn’t worth it (overall healing/sec – wise) – can still be good to use it without other finishers to get the damage and Knockback though.

Tool Kit:

• (Throw Wrench: Damage, Criple, Vulnerability. Try to make it hit on both ways. 100% Projectile finisher. Gets stuck in walls. Can pass over stairs / little hills and hit things this way even without direct line of sight (useful when you knocked someone over a edge). Probably misses when an enemy’s kiting sideways)
• Smack (Chain): Attack that cleaves on the first two hits, 3rd hits hard but has an enormous cast time. Use this to criple foes in melee when everything else is on CD.
• Box of Nails: You can cast it before a pull, when something’s stealthing around or when you want to let someone behind. Now with 25% less cast time!
• Pry Bar: High damage single target attack. That’s it, basically.
• Gear Shield: “Block” “block” “block”… “block” “block” “block”.
• Magnet: Long cast – high range pull. Although the range is 1200, pulling enemies over 900 units(?) away probably won’t put them into melee range. Remember that. Also, cancel the cast with the weapon swap key when you see an enemy dodging for reduced CD.

Rifle Turret:
Although it’s own damage isn’t gigantic, with overcharge a few hundred damage/sec and some vulnerability stacks can add up. However, you’ll want to use this skill for the detonation (KB, finisher or both) most of the time. Overcharged shots are projectile finishers again since the latest patch.

• Surprise Shot: Amazing TB skill for a SD build. Good damage, instant (you don’t have to face target), with SD proc 2 attacks that can proc sigils, get rid of Aegis/Blinds or just add oomph to a spike. Also a 100% projectile finisher.

Elixir Gun:

• (Healing Mist: Stunbreak and a bit of healing. You can use this to break the Self KB of Overcharged Shot to speed up a spike rotation at the cost of well, your only stunbreak.)
• Tranquilizer Dart: Will see little use in this build. Less damage than Hip Shot, no pierce. Can be useful against power builds but those will most likely run with -duration food and this build has no +duration so weaknes will probably fade before they hit you. To put it simply: go for the damage, unless you really really need a fraction of a second weaknes on a foe.
• Elixir F: Personally I rarely use it. It’s flight quality is quite lacking thus the hit rate is low. Can be useful for the criple.
• Fumigate: Use this for damage “through” walls, to proc sigils (high hit rate), to poison heals or removing conditions from allies in XvsX.
• Acid Bomb: Mobility, damage and blast finisher. Try to utilise more than one of these at one time. Cancel the jump shortly before landing to get back to running more smoothly. Bind turn around to a key, I have it on X. So you can X – Jump to move “forward”. Also useable to jump over gaps.
• Super Elixir: Cond remove, a bit healing and light field. Hit enemies near you with one of your projectile finishers for more condition remove!

Supply Crate:
When things go wrong or you want to add a little more CC to a CC chain. Destroyed Turrets will also deal damage and knockback, so throwing this in a bigger group can be quite disruptive. In small encounters try to pick up the medipacks when you’re low and place yourself next to a turret when the enemy is a cleaving melee attacker. Mind that thieves can use these turrets for CnD-ing.

Traits

Explosives: 2

• (Evasive Powder Keg): Can do some nice damage when you dodge in melee.
• Accelerant-Packed Turrets: This makes Rifle as well as Healing turret quite dangerous to be around for enemies. The damage is solid, mind it can’t crit but also will not counter attacks on yourself. The KB is amazing for kiting melees or chaining a CC with Magnet.

Firearms: 2

• (Sharpshooter): Can add a little damage but isn’t really worth mentioning in a power build
• Hair trigger: CD reduction for rifle.

Inventions: 4

• (Low Health Response System): Not a essential part of the build, but when you get a heal with Automated Medical Response off this will add some more healing over time.
• Energized Armor: More damage – universally useful. You might want to swap this with Stabilized Armor, Claoking Device or Protective Shield depending on the situation.
• (Automated Medical Response): Strong but situational and difficult / impossible to make use of in some situations. You basically have to know that you’re going to go low because you won’t have much HP left when this triggers. Be ready to stunbreak and immediately cast HT when your health drops.
• Power Shoes: Speeeeeeeed.

Alchemy: 0

• -

Tools: 6

• (Adrenaline Pump): Usually doesn’t get much attention but it’s a nice endurance generator that works “backstage”.
• Static Discharge: Static Discharge. It fires a bouncing bolt to your target when you use a targeted toolbelt skill. Other toolbelt skills (like Detonate Turret) will fire a bolt towards the center of the screen/in the direction your character is facing.
• (Inertial Converter): Reloads TB skills. Goes hand in hand with Automated Medical Response when you go low during a stun.
• Power Wrench: Less CD on Tool Kit skills plus a criple on Throw Wrench and the Smack-Chain. However, don’t try to heal your turrets. I know you love them but you have to let them go.
• (Enduring Damage): Adds some damage sometimes. Won’t be active long in intense fights but it’s always good for a strong opening strike.
• Adrenal Implant: for more dodging.

Runes & Sigils

• Runes: Runes of the Pack. They have a good amount of offensive stats (main power +125 prec) and will add a moderate Fury uptime which this build lacks otherwise. Undeniable strength runes would be strong too, but having no base boon duration and prefering other sigils makes me stick with Pack (and also the price). So… For the pack! You also get that howling wolf on proc. He’ll strike fear into the hearts of your enemies.

• Sigils: I run Air and Blood at the moment. They add good dps and some sustain. You can also get a Rifle with Purity+Generosity against cond users, Fire+Hydromancy/Force/Geomancer for camp capping or something differently mixed. The patch is still new and my choice is just based on my intuition.

Armor

See build link. Don’t want to scroll up? No problem: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vcAQFAUlUUpkr1UxdLseRiM6BpJabWIFS49BqQe9pAdB-zEyAYLAKEQCsIasVyioxqXwUuLqW/C4NwIFwSKjA-w
It’s the original setup so it might look a little random. As much as I’d like to write stories about reasonings – why this and that and not the other stat here or there, it boils down to this: I feel comfortable with this stat distribution. Feel free to fine tune it yourself to your liking.

Gameplay

Oversimplified:

CC -> damage. Block, evade, kite and CC to stay alive. Turn defensive CDs into spike initiators to catch enemies off guard. Use your turret detonation offensively for deadly CC chains. Use them defensively when you’re in trouble (water field blasts). Auto attack and surprise shot in between to keep up damage. Use LOS to your advantage. You want to keep distance to melees. You want to get close to ranged fighters.

Approaches to a fight/Initiators

First of all, try to switch utilities to gain a free stealth from throw elixir s and free burn from Incendiary Ammo pre combat. Be careful not to be forced into combat while having the “wrong” skills equipped! Mind initiators can also be executed on the fly mid fight, but it’s usually harder to follow a strict rotation then. I’m not a fan of rotations, I actually “chaos-play” most of the times. Trying to nail down reasonable skill chains my subconscious comes up with here.

The “Instagib”:

This won’t work often, but to cover it up: your opening spike vs. single opponents will be Pull, Pry Bar, Overcharged Shot optional stunbreak), Throw Wrench, Surprise Shot. Net Shot as follow up control, you can jump shot to get near or if you broke self KB fast running should be sufficient to get a close range Blunderbuss/Jump Shot off.

• Good vs. squishy and unaware opponents.

The “I knew you’d dodge magnet”:

Run forward while you cast magnet, let your enemy dodge it. If possible, cancel the cast to safe the CD. If your opponents is offensive (aka dodged forward to get in range) follow up with Net Shot (he should be close enough to ensure a hit). Throw Wrench, Surprise Shot, Overcharged Shot (auto attack when you stunbreak it), Magnet (it’s ready again at this time when you interrupted it) and Pry bar or rifle turret + detonation for another follow up CC. If the enemy also dodges the Net shot at the beginning, no problem. He just double dodged and has no endurance left. Feel free to use OS or any other CC or damage skill because he probably has to eat it up.

• Good vs. aggressive melees who try to close the gap via dodging.

The “Anti-blocker”:

Often enemies will try to get close using a block skill to prevent potential CCs. So don’t throw Net Shot or OS on them. Use box of nails and Acid Bomb for kiting and unblock-able damage or interrupt the block with Magnet. The latter makes it possible to follow up with the “Instagib” but it’s more risky since it allows your enemy to come very close uncontrolled while you’re vulnerable casting Magnet. Acid bomb regains distance and maybe even makes the enemy use dodges while keeping all usual spike initiation skills off CD.

• Good vs. melees channelling blocks.

The “Anti Range”:

Fighting ranged opponents with this build is by default harder (usually). Basically this build can’t to anything dangerous besides auto attacking at high range and its best cap closer can be dodged. So you really want to get close in stealth. Start with net shot, Pry bar and Blunderbuss. Then the enemy will probably dodge. Jump Shot to where his dodge ends. He’ll probably dodge another time or get high damage, win-win. When he dodged a second time OS, Throw Wrench, Surprise Shot. Or pull him right back, depending on how durable he is. Or jump towards him with [turn around key] and Acid Bomb. Put up RT for some sustain ranged damage. But oh well, we’re way beyond the initiator by now.
When you didn’t stealth pre combat, try getting close enough to hit with net shot. You may need block for that. Watch out for hostile “anti-blocker” tactics

• Not really amazing but a solid way to start a ranged combat.

- to be expanded -

Reserved for future use.

Reserved for future use.

Hope it doesn’t get this long but “Reserved for future use.”

Thanks for this! Solid advice for somebody who wants to play a build like this.

Just wanted to say I enjoy your videos. I switched from conditions over to power a while ago but I got burned out on the usual grenades and bombs. Have been playing this build since I saw your first video. It’s very fun, although I am still learning to utilize the Elixir Gun. I usually forget I have it slotted and I just kinda kitten when I swap to it.

With the recent patch, I’ve been messing around with a 10/0/3…. er 2/0/6/0/6 for the turret reflections. Miss out on the firearms line and the rifle cooldown. But its pretty satisfying bouncing attacks back at ranged opponents.

And apparently using the word “kitten ” gets filtered to “kitten”

edit: Nevermind….

What adjustments do you make for sPvP? Any trait differences? Zerker amulet?

You might also want to mention that surprise shot doesn’t require you to be facing your enemy, so it’s a good way to attack your foe while kiting them or are CC’ed.

Yamsandjams.3267:

What adjustments do you make for sPvP? Any trait differences? Zerker amulet?

You might also want to mention that surprise shot doesn’t require you to be facing your enemy, so it’s a good way to attack your foe while kiting them or are CC’ed.

For spvp: no adjustments, zerker amulet.
True, didn’t even think about highlighting this. It’s kind of included in “instant”

Thanks for this writeup! ive been looking for a non condition build forever :P I have all the gear for this pretty much, will try this out!

This might be two months old, but I found it on Wolfineer’s site, and I think this build is great. A friend who has been running an SD burst build for a while (though I didn’t even know it until I really knew what it was) advised me to run goggles instead of elixir gun, and it has worked out great. I can totally see why someone would stick with EG, but the 10 vuln on toolbelt is great for the burst, and you still keep a stun break as the utility.

Hokie.1045:

This might be two months old, but I found it on Wolfineer’s site, and I think this build is great. A friend who has been running an SD burst build for a while (though I didn’t even know it until I really knew what it was) advised me to run goggles instead of elixir gun, and it has worked out great. I can totally see why someone would stick with EG, but the 10 vuln on toolbelt is great for the burst, and you still keep a stun break as the utility.

It is not just the Stunbreaker though, Elixir Gun gives you also condition removal, a great pressure on downed with Acid Bomb which can also serve as a way to escape, a (AoE) cripple and also a way to cleanse conditions from allies. The UG only gives more selfish stats, besides you got Inertial Converter in Tools which means your toolbelt skills recharge at 25% of your health (= free extra stunbreaker). The UG’s stunbreaker won’t get recharged then.. oh and it also has a longer cooldown!

Jep EG is much better than UG .

This is THE engi build, it’s really well designed and worth spending time and gold to play it.

In www, I can confirm having hard time with ranged but also with heavy cond spec, that’s why EG is important.
Super Elixir is a light field, with Surprise Shot and Throw Wrench (both 100% Physical Projectile) you have 2 more condition removals, also hip shot has a 20% chance.
Maybe the health pool is too low for www nowadays (too many condi spammers around), but that can be fixed playing with trinkets and foods to have the same stats with less power.

I’m not a fan of pre-casting toolbet skills, it brings too much in general (not only for this build) and it’s a cheap mechanic that can be fixed soon or later.

mammasaura.5907:

Super Elixir is a light field, with Surprise Shot and Throw Wrench (both 100% Physical Projectile) you have 2 more condition removals, also hip shot has a 20% chance.

I thought projectile finishers from light fields only cleansed conditions on allies they passed through. Do they cleanse the caster too?

Tien.3865:

mammasaura.5907:

Super Elixir is a light field, with Surprise Shot and Throw Wrench (both 100% Physical Projectile) you have 2 more condition removals, also hip shot has a 20% chance.

I thought projectile finishers from light fields only cleansed conditions on allies they passed through. Do they cleanse the caster too?

its weirder than that isnt it? a 180 aoe around the enemy targets you hit?

tbh i tend to limit my field use to either damaging projectiles or blasting/leaping through water/fire/smoke/poison or blasting static fields that get in my way… i dont feel like rifle autos through light really do a hell of a lot and its hard to squeeze a throw wrench into healing turrets field when i already leap and blast 2x, there just isnt enough time to get dat regen too

Update after, well, quite some time playing this build plus a half year break:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpkr1UxdLseNCdBN6w0lnE6eewQ/pAA-TFDFABLpsKFVBA4BAUoKBIpUhgLAQa6AqZ/hBUCmoaEqoiSXmgCAgAczbGAOaMa25Ov5NvZSBskyI-w

Will write more about it when I have more time.

What’s the reasoning behind the swap from Hair Trigger to Fortified Turrets? I’m kinda mixing your old build with another SD build I played with recently with amazing results. Very curious about that one change.

Nice guide, even though its a bit outdated most of it is still relevant. In hopes more engis running defensive condi builds change to power(SD or cele) im going to dump all my knowledge here. Iv been playing SD engi for months now and have refined it to how i like but i think iv tryed all the viable variations over that time.

Ill start with the “base” of all my SD builds
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAElUUpkr1Uh1rRoLoRGmpIqF+pAA-TFCFABNpkAgLAwVKBRS5mAPAga2fINdEJq+TAAEgbezAwQH6QH6QHa38m38mD9mlCYJlRA-w

You can swap out equipment stats and runes/sigils to your liking but this has been a solid mix for me. Speedy kits and invigorating speed has always been a staple for me..more vigor=more dodge=less damage taken..The tool kit is another staple, the blocks, the pry bar that hits like a truck, everyone’s favorite the magnet pull and the most under appreciated skill in the set. the box of nails. Also the throw wrench does nice damage and one of the skills that the SD proc will go for who you target

The turret is mainly there for its toolbelt skill surprise shot. with instant cast you can lay it ontop of any of your other attacks for that sweet spike(pry bar+SS..jump shot+SS..throw wrench+SS). It is also a blast finisher when blown up, 3/4 of the time when i heal ill drop rifle turret then heal turret, overcharge and blast em both. The damage it dose is also nice. You can also place down the rifle turret and wait around it and blast thiefs when they go for the back stab.

The last utility slot is blank. this is for what ever you find most successful. Common skills in this spot are elixir gun, rocket boots, elixer S, utility goggles,Personal battering ram and slick shoes. You will see in my other builds i use alot of elixer S. it works as a panic button and enables safe stomps and the stealth can be very helpful for landing spikes(stealth+pry bar+SS) disengaging or just abit of sustain in a fight, buying time while you recover/skill cooldowns

The most all round build i use most the time is
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpkr1Ux+KseRCdBN6wMlnAyFUBRtwPFAA-TFCFABNpkAgHAwVKBRS5mAXAga2fINdEJq+TAAEADdoDdoDdodzbezbO0bWKglUGB-w
Buffing your rifle and also giving a better baseline recovery to your endurance

If running with a party, especially if one is laying down lots of conditions i sometimes run http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpkr1Ux+KseRCdBNywMFQvgK8VRtwPFAA-T1BFABCcBAQS5Xa6AqZ/hEV/BgHAwVKBBA-w
Modified ammunition and target the maimed can give a solid damage increase

A defensive build i ran when i 1st started playing SD(have not played this in awhile)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpkr1UxvLseRCdBN6wMllEqRIyF2wPFAA-TFCFABNpkAgHAwVKBRS5mAXAga2fINdAJq+DpAKSZE-w
passive aegis every 15 seconds and some strong CC defence

I never ran it much but when i tried the fortify turret trait i went
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpkr1UxdLseRCdBNywMlQ3zREaRtwPFAA-TFCFABNpkAgHAwVKBRS5mAXAga2fINdAJq+DA-w
The turret shield was nice against ranged focused people and used defensivly. but the investment of traits vs the reward did not seem worth it when i tryed it

I have a few more builds but there very niche, situational and not really worth posting lol

Deicide.5178:

What’s the reasoning behind the swap from Hair Trigger to Fortified Turrets? I’m kinda mixing your old build with another SD build I played with recently with amazing results. Very curious about that one change.

Basically it helps a lot in problematic matchups (power ranger), is a nice to have in quite a few others (vs any Thief, when they fall back on SB, war with LB, medi guard with scepter, cond mes pressuring with staff clone autos, power necro DS auto) while not crippling the build too much elsewhere. Ofc sometime you’d prefer the points elsewhere, but these matchups are often ones I feel comfortable handling even when investing in Fortified Turrets.

Ocelot.4278:

[…]

Overall going for alch and the Speedy kits / inv. speed combo is just as fine.
As for the free utility I see slick shoes as a good alternative, but I don’t like using elixir s. cooldown is huge for the stunbreak, it doesn’t recharge with inertial converter and you can’t counter attack after breaking stun or stunbreak offensively (breaking self kb of OS to enhance your burst combo after launching an enemy). Utility goggles partly suffers from the some problems plus it doesn’t give you any defensive utility on top of the stunbreak (the offensive gain is very rarely worth the defensive loss imo). Personal battering ram and rocket boots are a no-go for me, no stunbreak at all is just careless.

@ 1st actual build:
I don’t really get why you’d run adrenal implant on top of invigorating speed, endurance regeneration doesn’t stack so you get little out of adrenal implant. Just go for armor mods or power wrench.

@ 2nd build:
Offensive version, not much else to say.

@ 3rd build:
Inventions isn’t that great when you don’t reach out for AMR. The def proc is nice, but since it’s not uncommon to receive a crit at any time and get spiked sometime else when protective shield is on CD I haven’t found it to be very reliable. That build already features protection injection which outshines protective shield most of the time. Instead of putting 2 in inventions you could max out alchemy, get backpack regenerator and Energy Conversion Matrix along with it. With frequent access to swiftness, regen, vigor, fury and might it’s a solid DPS boost.

@ 4th build:
Again protective shield. Investing that much into inventions screams for power shoes + adrenal implant instead of speedy kits + invigorating speed. Drop alch, put the points in tools to get adrenal implant as gm, get power wrench as master instead of speedy kits.

I take adrenal implants along with the speedy kit+invigorating speed combo for the extra endurance gain. In most cases your going to proc invigorating speed with tool kit swap. the vigor last for 5 1/2 seconds and the cooldown on speedy kit is 10 seconds. Adrenal implants gives a nice base line regen between vigor proc.

Like i said at the start, iv refined it to how i play. Lots of vigor and dodge rolls have worked best for me. Armor mod is nice but too unpredictable when it comes to blocking critical skills vs auto attack. Power wrench is a fine substitute and slots in its place just fine.

I ran elixir gun over elixir S for along time. But iv come to like the safe stomp and the stealth engage,disengage or stealth stomp. For a all round skill in this slot its really elixir S or elixir gun. There both more well rounded and less situational then the the others.

Your build with fortified turret decently seems better then mine. The one i used i tried for a night to see how the trait was(iv seen the trait be effective). i didn’t have much luck with it but ill give your build a go tonight. it looks like a solid,fun and different alternative to how i normally play.

I hope you keep this this thread updated, there’s some real solid stuff in this guide i wish i found when i started engi. Good stuff

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpkr1UxtLseRCdBNywMFQugKIyGuwPFAA-T1BFABCcBAsZ/BkU+lhOAAeAAFq+zVKBJFwSKjA-w

I run that.

A lot more DPS output. Loses some outnumbered potential.

I love the burst life and run this:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpkr1UxtLseRCdBNywMFQugKIyGuwPFAA-T1BFABCcBAsZ/BkU+lhOAAeAAFq+zVKBJFwSKjA-w

In group play, I switch out rifle range for modified ammo since condis are more prevalent.