Guild Wars 2

So honestly, after browsing the internet for the past week looking for viable engineer builds, I’m of the conclusion that i’m doing something wrong. (If atleast the numbers from what others are saying is true)

So first of all, my current stuff:

Weapon:
Rifle no sigil as of yet.

Skillbar:
Elixir H
Grenade Kit
Elixir S
Elixir R
Supply Crate

Traits:
30/10/0/20/10

Gear:
Exotic berserker set, no runes as of yet.

My accessories tend for power / precision / crit

I tend to use grenades instead of the rifle for the most part. I was just looking for advice on how to make this build give out better DPS (though retaining some survivability, not intending for a completely glass cannon)

I may just be a little worried that i’m under-damaging stuff, however, but any advice is appreciated! (especially where sigils / runes are concerned, i’m unsure what to go with as of yet, since the one thing I was interested in is 7G per rune.)

I would like to add, while grenades do seem effective, they just feel slow, granted my older builds did feel slower but..eh.

If anyone requires more information i’m willing to provide.

Just curious… what are you using this for? WvWvW? Are you zerging or roaming? You have a lot of escapes that screams PvP.

PvP: I think grenades are difficult to use all the time, especially in WvW, although dedicated grenadiers may disagree with me on this point. I find them very useful in WvW for attacking forts/castles/opponents on walls/etc, less useful for AoEing groups because people tend to move out of the way, and somewhat useful for CC’s in 1-on-1 fights because you tend to be chucking them near you, and people have less chance to get out of the way.

Berserker gear suits rifle as your primary 1-v-1 damage. So you might consider changing your skills by upping the points in the Firearms line. Rifle range and +10% damage are obvious choices, but there are some utility options worth looking at also.

As for Sigils/Runes, you need to get them in your Weapon/Armor ASAP. Consider Orbs or Gems for your armor because they are relatively cheap, so you can play around with different options without it costing a fortune, and it’s not complicated to work out what their benefits are, unlike some Runes. For example, consider Ruby Orbs for +power/prec/crit (@ 20/14/2%). You have up to 7 slots with backslot, so you’re missing out on 140 power, 98 prec and 14% crit damage.

For Sigils, consider anything that proc’s of crit chance: air, lightning, etc.

Finally, if you decide grenades are not going to be your primary damage, then you could think about removing points from Explosives and putting them somewhere else. While it does reduce your power (and rifle scales well with power), an option is Tools because it will increase your Crit Damage. You can get your Crit % over 50% and Crit Damage > 90% this way, and put alot of pressure on opponents if you’re auto-shot critting from 1300 – 2500 depending on the squishiness of your adversary.

Ah, sorry for not replying earlier, has been a busy day!

@Henry: I believe the builds I found at this point were PvP oriented, but I was looking for basically an all around engi actually, something that’d do well in both PvP (Namely WvW, sPvP isn’t my thing) and dungeons / other areas.

@Universal: The advice here is amazing, I think i’d prefer to use the rifle (or as it were, dual pistols, albeit I understand pistols work better with condition damage which is what prompted the move to a rifle), the lack of sigils/runes is also down to the fact I just made my armor last night, got a bit tired after it, but i’ll definitely stuff some things in there right away and have a play around with the firearms line compared to the explosives line.

I have two engi builds I enjoy. One is a glass cannon rifle/grenadier which is
30 V/VII/XI
15 V
0
0
25 VI (of course!) and IX

The medkit offers more damage via crits (fury buff) and a bit of extra speed.
I use Elixir U over Elixir S, I want to kill them before they kill me. Preferrably they won’t touch me because if they do, I am probably going to die. Elixir R is my defensive ability. Self res’ FTW! also ranged res’ing allies helps me stay out of the fail, pardon me, fire.
Runing for precision and condition damage to proc crits and make them hurt. I have extra power and crit damage via traits. The sigil on my rifle is the Superior Sigil of Earth. It has the most chance of allowing my rifle to apply condition damage. Though I only use it for control/manoevrability.
I am currently seeing how this build will go against the Dragons, but my favourite use of this build is standing above the Gate in Temple of the Silent Storm, popping Elixir U and making it rain grenades!
I think this is similar to your build, and so shouldn’t take you too long to adjust to it.
I hope you (and anyone else) enjoys this build.

Hahaha, I was too late to post my version of Cenile’s build. I have 1 trait difference, and I added rune of dolyaks to withstand AoE a little bit better in WvWvW. You just stand in the back/middle of the zerg and chuck grenades. At the first sign of trouble, you leg it because you’re still squishy.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcQQFAUl0piY38SfF17IyYGd2EC+Qe95Bb1WQIA;TgAg0CnosxYjwGrNObk2A
(you have to copy and paste to URL to work.)

Very much a general zerg build, not really all that good for small group PvP. If you want to run with small (havoc) groups often, you should try and find some good pvp static discharge roaming build with your setup.

Thanks for all the responses! I may stick with a grenade build yet as the last two replies seem brilliant to me in combination with what Universal said, I know both of your examples focus around WvW, how do they fare in dungeons? ’Cause as much fun I have in WvW, I do dungeons (And well, other areas, world completion and the likes) more.

Ruby orbs are cheap and offer great offensive stats. I would start there for your armor runes.

From what I understand, grenades are the best DPS for PvE. Elixer U is also prolly a good option.