Guild Wars 2

I’ve been having a really hard time trying to find a build that doesn’t rely on dumping 30 points into alchemy, nor having to play a power glass cannon gadget build for PvP (WvWvW and sPvP).

I’m failing to find one that is fun and simply not one trick ponied like moat of them are.

Ideally I’d like to work with a condition build, P/S, and throw in some cool gadgets/gear set without having to have ten kittening potions in there for stun breaks or buffs.

Any ideas, or are we simply doomed to the meta that is alchemy currently if we want to have any success as a condition engineer, or an engineer in general?

Either that or I’m guessing its time to role a ranger, necro, thief, or mesmer..

Well there is a bomb heal build around somewhere.

Or

Maybe you would wanna try my turret build. Full Settler set with undead runes 0/0/30/30/10 spread. Pick up protection injection, backpack regen, automated response and the turret traits on inventions. Rifle Turret, Flame turret and elixir gun and watch yourself be nearly unkillable while dishing out some good damage.

I don’t think build sites have added settlers in yet.

Edit: Forgot you didnt want points in alchemy, you could drop them in firearms instead and pick up pistol traits.

Well, there’s not much in the way of non-elixir stunbreakers for engineer unless you’re willing to self-stun with rocket boots or willing to fit in goggles. Lacking a stunbreaker, you have to mitigate being stunned. I know you want to get away from Alchemy, but for 10 in it Protection Injection is awesome for mitigation. Beyond that you’d have to go full into toughness and other boons that mitigate any damage you’d take while being stunned.

As far as non-elixir boons go, a 20 in Explosives nets you three stacks of might when using a heal skill.

Oh yea, and there’s food for mitigating stun too: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bowl_of_Roasted_Lotus_Root

I appreciate the responses, I guess I’ll have to try it out then.

Question about the turret build, how does that fare against mesmers and illusions?

Just really sucks that our only good stun break is pretty much in elixir form.

Also question, someone said that it was power that increased confused damage; I thought it was condition? Do you know which one does?

Confusion is condition damage.
And against mesmers I can hold my own pretty well. After a while I’ll start to gain the advantage and they usually end up trying to run away. Though I can’t rely on turrets for that part they’ll just end up shooting at illusions.

Ahh I see. Man, I just feel like I’m in a weird spot, if I can bother you more for your opinion, it would be helpful.

At the moment, I’m just kind of ‘bleh’ with my Engineer. I both love and absolutely hate this class. I feel like the core mechanics are fun, but the way the traits and some of the skills are designed, we fall flat in some areas hard and are pidgeoned holed.

To this extent, I feel that the greatest reason I wanted to role an engineer (utility and versatility) has been stripped away because of this (reliance on Alchemy or the rarer glass cannon builds) and the original ideas and concepts of the class have been all but removed.

A lot of the gadgets simply arent that great, like mine kit, rocket boots, oil slick, battering ram, etc. They’re fantastic in concept, but other kits such as Flame thrower (knock back), Elixir S (stun break/immunity), not really one for oil slick though the tool kit adds a lot more versatility in ways that it can’t, simply outmatch these other skills by leaps and bounds.

To compound more problems on the Engineer, the RNG on thrown elixirs is absolutely brutal. It takes a lot of the planned strategy away and fills it in with a throw and pray type of feel. Its very hard to plan anything with abilities that are so random, but this has been stated before.

I guess what I’m asking, Penguin, Chaba, or any other poster in this thread, is how do I rekindle me love for the Engineer class again in pvp, or should I try and figure out one what that may draw my attention better than what this class currently can?

Personally for me it’s the enjoyment I get from the challenge of making a build work for my own style. In PvP surviving was my first challenge, so my builds focused completely on staying alive. As I got more comfortable with the profession, I started giving up some of my defense for offense so I could win a 1 vs. 1 and some 1 vs. 2 fights. If you want to survive 1 vs. X then you have to spec entirely for surviving, but I have teammates to help win those fights so I prefer a 50/50 split between offense and defense.

If the engineer’s abilities just don’t hold your attention any more, there’s nothing wrong with moving on to another profession. I’ve considered it a few times, but I’m not interested in re-training my muscle memory for something new.

Lastly, we all get bored with our own builds so sometimes it’s a good idea to see what other people are playing. Adopt someone else’s build for a few days and really try it out.

Sometimes I have felt meh with this class too, that is pretty normal after playing it for a long time. Hopefully the balance patch and trait touch ups at the end of this month will help people get excited for this class again. Not to mention the upcoming armor.

Just because I haven’t seen many builds similar to it, and because I’ve been using it in sPvP/tPvP and it’s been a full new build for me (after 2000+ games as an Engie it’s hard to find something that plays different on the same profession) here is a heavy CC/lockdown/node neutralizer build that stacks up amazingly well in against those professions you mentioned once you become adept at timing your moves.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-V70;0B-cPVv0a6V1kw0;9;4J-JT-28;204-35B;1S;56Rk06Rk06gY

Considering the high health pool and decent sustained damage, the only real drawbacks I’ve seen to this build so far are against players who kite, and players with constant access to stability.

This one does dump the 30 into the Alchemy line, however, and isn’t a condition build but a power rifle build, but considering that you can basically walk around at 7k life completely immune to conditions, and you get your heal turret back at around this same point, I can usually pop the heal, blast away the 2 worst conditions and stand toe to toe with most builds. If pressured with melee, use your bombs, if stunned, you have to get in the habit of swapping quickly to FT kit and using your smoke blind, or staying near your thumper turret with the overcharge ready. It’s a build that can be locked down, but the high health and toughness mixed with the fact that you are spamming blinds and CC yourself at such regular intervals has made it feel like I’m not lacking anything so far without a stunbreaker.

In tPvP I use Runes of Centaur to roam and get to their home point faster, for basic sPvP Runes of Hoelbrak seem to be pretty nice but I’m sure there are other alternative that might work better depending on playstyle.

I can never resist trying a build out that has a new twist. Conditions have been running rampant in tPvP lately so what I found intriguing is the idea of having a massive health pool so our 25% mark is close to what most people have at 40-50% health and how that relates to Automated Response.

I played six matches and have to say it’s a fun and effective build. The Thumper Turret provides 3 blast finishers in one utility for good burst healing. I found myself using Smoke Bomb and Rumble (Thumper Turret toolbelt skill) to stealth before entering team fights so I wouldn’t immediately draw aggro. I was also using Smoke Bomb and Healing Turret>overcharge>detonate to kind of reset things if I felt too pressured. The lack of a shield made me feel very naked, but I started to get used to the Rifle’s CC—especially Overcharged Shot. Elixir X is something I had only used in Spirit Watch until last night. I’m not sure how I feel about it, but it did allow me to capture some points I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.

Thanks for sharing your build. [edited to give credit to aydenunited]

Grackleflint.4956:

Hey Penguin. I can never resist trying a build out that has a new twist. Conditions have been running rampant in tPvP lately so what I found intriguing is the idea of having a massive health pool so our 25% mark is close to what most people have at 40-50% health and how that relates to Automated Response.

I played six matches and have to say it’s a fun and effective build. The Thumper Turret provides 3 blast finishers in one utility for good burst healing. I found myself using Smoke Bomb and Rumble (Thumper Turret toolbelt skill) to stealth before entering team fights so I wouldn’t immediately draw aggro. I was also using Smoke Bomb and Healing Turret>overcharge>detonate to kind of reset things if I felt too pressured. The lack of a shield made me feel very naked, but I started to get used to the Rifle’s CC—especially Overcharged Shot. Elixir X is something I had only used in Spirit Watch until last night. I’m not sure how I feel about it, but it did allow me to capture some points I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.

Thanks for sharing your build.

I think you were referring to my post…

Anyway, I actually have to confess… I still usually use Supply Drop, but a team I was running with the other day liked my far node assault with mass knockbacks, and so Elixir X came in handy for that, and it’s a good option, as long as their far node is just a single lone bunkerish type build. Burst specs will just ruin you while you’re sitting there in Juggernaut or Tornado form.

I have also toyed around with using this build with Medikit and exchanging Accelerated Turrets for Enhance Performance. It’s somewhat better for might stacking, and might suit players used to HGH but not wanting to continue to use elixirs. You give up a pretty minimal amount of CC, but you’ll notice Thieves and Warriors are marginally tougher without the ability to lure them near your heal turret and detonate it to send them flying back.

Yeah I was about to say.. lol I was so confused reading what you got out of my build xD

Edited my post. Sorry about that, ayden.

Grackleflint.4956:

Edited my post. Sorry about that, ayden.

NP… always happy when someone tries out one of my ideas, I usually don’t bother to post them unless I’ve done extensive testing to back them up at a moderate level of play.