Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

Just looking for some constructive feedback or suggestions on the build I came up with last night. (This may be a very popular build I’m not sure)

20/20/0/30/0

cripple foes at 50% health and burn on crit.
pistol recharge and pistol range.
elixir recharge, elixirs remove conditions and elixirs grant might.

I used elixir heal, the elixir that grants might retal and fury, elixir that grants quickness (for the toolbelt skill), and elixir S.

I played this in hot joins and even in the LA events and had great success.
plenty of condi clears and lots of utility.

I used a rabbid jewel in pvp and carrion armor with rabbid trinkets in pve.
hoelbrack runes with torment sigil and earth sigil.

any thoughts?

additional points I’d like to add.
I have 3 ways of securing a stomp in this build.
some are more reliable than others.
1 being quickness,
2 being stealth (securing or denying stomps)
3 being invulnerability.

I am unsure as to whether hoelbrack runes are better than undead runes?
obviously the might duration is nice. but would the much higher condi damage when running undead runes make up for lack of might duration?

Is carrion better than rabbid for HGH builds?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/HGH-might-stacking-power-vs-condi

Check out Maskaganda’s posts/ videos, he runs dual pistol hgh very successfully.

Thank you both for your answers.

20/20/0/30/0 isn’t bad. I wavered between that and what I came up with and have been using:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vcAQJAqalcTpPrVXx+KseNiA6RexXjooHPGlNZfKIXA-ToAAzCpIaS1krJTTymsNNEZuA

I’ve been using this for the past week or two. It’s done well for me in SoloQ. I generally don’t like to use offhand pistol so I wanted to try and come up with something that makes it work for me. I had Rifled Barrels in for awhile in place of Coated Bullets, but with all the darn AI that professions are using nowadays Coated Bullets is actually sort of helpful in allowing your skills to not get body blocked on their way to your target. I’ve only tried Coated Bullets for a match or two, and I know it only works on #1 and #2 but it still seems helpful against the Necros/Rangers/Mesmers of the world. I’ll probably change back to Rifled Barrels since having a 1200 range (albeit slow) immobilize is pretty cool but it’s worth thinking about.

I had a lot of trouble at first because I was playing more aggressively like I had a shield. When I changed to be a bit more passive and stay on the perimeter and wait for the right time to strike I have had great success. When the opening presents itself Glue Shot > BoB > Glue Bomb > Fire Bomb > Concussion Bomb > Smoke Bomb > Poison Dart Vollet is a pretty nasty combo that will kill nearly anyone. Not crazy direct damage, but enough to be noticeable and when combined with the insane condition damage you can melt people. As soon as they clear the burning from Fire Bomb or it runs out hit with Blowtorch. If I can I set this up with Toss S to make sure that first immobilize can surprise them and hit then it’s usually successful.

you will get destroyed in solo/team queues. as with all hgh builds survivability is poor. no kits means your damage will be poor, especially in tpvp where you can’t stack ridiculous condi duration like you can in wvwvw. the quickness elixir is really, really bad in pvp. you either lose all your endurance or take more damage on a build where survivability is already an issue. it’ll work in hotjoins i suppose but my condi ele also works in hotjoins.

also torment and earth sigils don’t stack.

ellesee.8297:

you will get destroyed in solo/team queues. as with all hgh builds survivability is poor. no kits means your damage will be poor, especially in tpvp where you can’t stack ridiculous condi duration like you can in wvwvw. the quickness elixir is really, really bad in pvp. you either lose all your endurance or take more damage on a build where survivability is already an issue. it’ll work in hotjoins i suppose but my condi ele also works in hotjoins.

also torment and earth sigils don’t stack.

Sounds like you were commenting on his specific build, but HGH builds in general are not bad. You can (and should) include a kit but you have very high survive ability. Elixir S let’s you stay alive, Elixir B gives stablity (otherwise unattainable), Elixir R can self revive, and you have the best condi removal available on an Engi which is a must in today’s meta.

I’m not a huge elixir fan, but to say elixir builds lack survive ability is just not correct.

hgh builds are extremely fragile in comparison to the standard condi build. here’s why:

-you don’t run vigor or energy sigil, which is a HUGE loss in survivability. no other class needs vigor/energy sigil as badly as the engineer does.
-you don’t run backpack regenerator or protection injection, another huge loss in survivability.
-you don’t get tool kit or shield blocks because you need to run 2 elixirs and offhand pistol. if you do run shield you lose a LOT of damage from blowtorch and otherwise have no methods of reliable burning.
-your only defense mechanism is elixir s which the standard condi builds also run.

some more reasons why hgh is second rate:

-no permanent swiftness. unless you decide to give up pistol cooldowns and more bleeds.
-thieves are extremely popular and are an essential part of any team. all meta thief builds (s/d, s/p, d/p) run boonsteal. jumper’s s/d build is what killed off hgh from the meta in the first place.
-you have more condi removal yes, but honestly you’re still not going to beat a competent condi necro, which is the only build standard condi engis have trouble with.
-noble runes aren’t in tpvp yet. you either lose a lot of condi damage from using might stacking runes, or you lose might duration from using condi runes.

I agree with a lot of your posts ellesee, but I think you’re way off on this one. First of all comparing to what the top level teams are running, while a popular comparison, is pointless. 99% of the people reading these forums aren’t playing against those players so saying what the best teams are using doesn’t serve any purpose. I get it, there is boon hate out there and sure it screws with the build but every build has a counter (unless you play Warrior).

Vigor and tons of Swiftness (not even defensive really) are both available in an HGH build, and I don’t see why you can’t use a Sigil of Energy. Plus you get far more protection and regeneration than you would otherwise. You could run shield and depending on the rest of your trait/gear choices you wouldn’t lose out on a ton of burning really. The blowtorch is the most terrible skill to land anyways, it’s far from guaranteed.

I want to say I’m not a huge HGH fan. As I said with the build I posted I just wanted to try playing around with P/P and my build happened to contribute to this thread so I posted it. I can see you have strong feelings about it and I’m fine with deciding to just agree to disagree.

Hi,

I have been using P/P build from day one. the only reason is that i think i looks cool. I originally wanted to be a thief, but I read that P/P as a thief was lackluster.

So i play an engineer P/P

My spec is 20/30/0/20/0 (if i recall)

I have the “burn on crit” from the explosive tree (cant rem the name of it..but its the one all engineers used to have)
from the firearms tree i have the cooldown reduction on pistol skills, range of pistol and the piercing bullets.
from the elixir tree i have the prot on cripple thingy and the all elixirs remove cond

I have slightly more power than cond dmg, and i guess i run a combination build.

The way i play the range on pistol is VERY usefull…i tend to play most of my time just on the edge of max range…then sometimes close in for the blowtourch etc…and rocket boots away after….

I use the healing turret

I never use kits….when i want speed i use the elixir B and the med kit speed buff (in other words…only as i travel )

I love my build:) but It’s not the best ofc…but i think it the best for my relatively limited abilities and above average stiff hands with slightly poor reaction and a combination between clicking and the naga mouse with 6 buttons…

and as i cant micromanage worth a kitten ….i dont use HGH…

(my favorite game would be a game i could play with hitting only 3..max 4 buttons in addition to using the mouse and arrow keys)

also I must mention that my focus in www. I play Pve also…mainly story kitten…never fractals..and never spvp