Guild Wars 2

After collecting the typical condition meta full set gear and then direct damage gear, I finally charged enough stupid quartz to get a full set of Celestial gear to on top of everything else. It was at this point I started wondering about the viability of hybrid rifle builds.

The rifle, as we all know, is more about control than damage and generally speaking if you want to go condition damage you go pistol/shield or pistol/pistol. If you want direct damage, you go rifle with Static Discharge. But I like to mix things up because I’m weird and like trying out new things. So here’s my current build that mixes up direct damage burst with supplemental condition damage, with confusion stacking thrown in because it’s stupidly good at the moment.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VW;4cPku0c-3UFx0;9;49T-9J4;012A;10;057-T;2R;0bUytbUytH0kr0;2N_-Vq5rar5sas5t59eWPk-BV8V-X5P-0d

Some traits can be exchanged for the situation, but in general that’s the build I use for WvW for the perma-swiftness/vigor amazingness. I also use Elixir S when necessary for stomps and kitten ing around enemy zergs. I also sub Bomb Kit for FT on occasion when I need more CC/consistent burning. Really, it’s pretty flexible when it comes to utilities, although I am loathed to ever go without Tool Kit on my bar.

This is the build I’m using right now thrown together with items I already had from my condition and direct damage sets. I’ve been using it and variations on the build for dungeons, world PvE, WvW, and even a weird off-shoot for sPvP. It has worked reasonably well but I feel like perhaps I’m not getting the most out of the idea or perhaps the idea is flawed to begin with.

The feedback and discussion I’m hoping to garner is whether or not people think this build and hybrid builds in general can be made to be as useful as the staple Elixir, SD, and pistol-based condition builds. The great thing about the Celestial gear is you can pretty much try whacky stuff without spending a lot of money. So my next interest beside hybrid rifle builds are full condition proc rifle builds and direct damage pistol builds.

Any thoughts on more off the wall builds that stand a chance at being useful or critiques on my current test build are welcome.

Terrible build because its hybrid. Thank you for posting though.

Hybrid builds are fine imho. I run one with hgh which I think is the key to making up the gap.

this build….. so bad words cannot describe, first of all why take 3 kits`? why bombkit,elixirgun and wrench?? just why? how are you going to manage survival and dps with your ufocus so spread out? taking so many kits is not worth it.. stick to one kit and the rest turrets (rifle,net turret or rocket turret).

this build is -99999/10

Three-Kit Engineer killing almost everyone he sees.

That is why you take 3 kits AncientYs. I don’t want to quote your post though, as it’s inflammatory towards the OP and I have a feeling it will be deleted by a moderator, which would subsequently delete this one.

Now, for some actual constructive advice for the OP.
I highly recommend taking 10 points out of tools and putting into explosives to get Forceful Explosives to increase your bomb kits radius. Bombs are very difficult to land without that trait as the radius on them untraited is quite small.

Your build is creative and I am glad you are having fun with it.

TheOneNOnlyGeneralBama.9586:

Terrible build because its hybrid. Thank you for posting though.

Never read such a terrible post. It’s a game without roles. Hybrids excel. Go play and get some practise little boy.

AncientYs.8613:

this build….. so bad words cannot describe, first of all why take 3 kits`? why bombkit,elixirgun and wrench?? just why? how are you going to manage survival and dps with your ufocus so spread out? taking so many kits is not worth it.. stick to one kit and the rest turrets (rifle,net turret or rocket turret).

this build is -99999/10

3 Kits is very usual. And it is worth it. Turrets? Really? Imo you are just also a bad engineer. Go get some practise.

Some changes you should think about making.

Infused precision out you don’t need it with invigorating speed and speedy kits. You have permanent swiftness by kit swapping don’t need the proc for it.

Modified Ammo is just bad, if you want the damage increase go for rifle mod, that gives +10% damage the same as modified ammo would give if you had 5 conditions on your target but you get it all the time.

Power Wrench isn’t great. You have to think about where your damage will be coming from. Its probably not going to be the toolkit, while the reduced cooldowns are nice, its probably not worth it.

Things possibly to add

Forceful explosions is a huge difference for bomb builds. I would highly recommend this if you use bombs.

Hair trigger is probably the best in the firearms line because its 10 points which is fairly cheap and lets you use your rifle abilities more often.

IF you want survival i highly recommend Protection Injection or Backpack Regenerator both found in alchemy.

I appreciate the feedback. This build was more of a sample build that I’m currently using while messing around with Celestial gear which is hybrid by its very nature. Here’s a bit explaining on my reasoning to some of the points brought up:

First off, kits grant flexibility and spread your abilities out giving you tools (no pun intended) you need when you need them. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone argue against using kits… but there’s a first time for everything and I won’t go any further than that in response to that topic.

As for the points brought up:

Forceful Explosions is unnecessary for this build as I don’t spend enough time in Bomb Kit for it to make a huge difference. Bomb Kit – which I also sub with Flamethrower or Elixir S, depending on the situation – is primarily for Fire Bomb burning + fire combo field (set off by Big ‘Ol Bomb or Acid Bomb) and Confusion Bomb to add Confusion stacks with Prybar and Runes of Perplexity procs/interrupts. Smoke Bomb and Glue Bomb are also useful sometimes too for Stealth/blinds or pinch immobilize/cripple. So in general, I don’t stay in Bomb Kit much.

Actually, that’s somewhat the case with all the kits. It’s like an Elementalist, I switch between kits chaining skills together as needed. So I don’t actually stay in one kit for an extended amount of time but dance between them when my primarily skills are on cooldown.

In response to Conan:

Thanks for the tips, my thoughts are as follows to your points:

- Infused Precision is a skill I chanced upon when trying to beat Liadri in the gauntlet. I was looking to stack movement speed in combat. I use Power Shoes in some of my other builds and I love the mobility it provides during combat (in PvP, that is). Not being able to work it into this build means I wanted something to replace it. It’s true Speedy Kits gives perma-swiftness, but without a lot of boon duration, it doesn’t work by itself as a combat mobility replacement. As such, given my 49% chance to crit, I figured Infused Precision is a nice replacement for Power Shoes and it has proven useful in PvP as I routinely stack up nice amounts of swiftness in combat. Call it a personal preference, I like moving faster than others in combat, gives me more options.

- You may have a point here. I’ve been on the fence with Modified Ammo and you have sound reasoning with saying Rifle Mod is a better choice. At least it is consistent in its damage bonus. I’ll take this suggestion to heart.

- I disagree. I think Power Wrench is great for PvP/WvW. PvE? You’re right, not so much. The great thing about Power Wrench is the cripple in a pinch that helps keep people in Prybar/Confusion Bomb range long enough to Immobilize them with Netshot for a nice Fire Bomb/Acid Bomb burst followed by a Jump Shot back on their face for a Blunderbuss. Ideal situations notwithstanding, it has proven its worth by allowing me to keep people severely crippled between Wrench Toss and Sitting Duck.

- See my above response on Forceful Explosions.

- Hair Trigger is great for rifle builds, I agree. Not so much this one. I juggle kits so often it seems rather unnecessary to have cooldown reduction on the rifle. By the time I complete a series of chain skills, my rifle skills have refreshed anyway.

- Survivability is probably one of the biggest issues with my test build when compared to say a Pistol Condition build. The armor is just shy of 2500, which isn’t bad. But it lacked traits that help defend you against Thief ganks. I used to run with Cloaking Device and that proved amazing for surviving ganks. But using that on this build felt a bit out of place. So while its not especially tanky, it isn’t exactly squishy either. Protection Injector is pretty nice and more reliable damage mitigator than Cloaking Device, so again you may have a point and I’ll keep that in mind if I need more tankiness.

Again, thanks to everyone for the responses. I would be interested in hearing if anyone else has any ‘bad’ hybrid builds as I think they have potential to bridge the gap between the current engineer meta builds (condition & SD).