Guild Wars 2

I’ve been experimenting with a few builds for leveling and dungeon running. I’ve tried out a pistols and elixirs build, and a grenade build. The grenade build seemed to kill enemies quickly, but I don’t really enjoy that style of play. How do either of these builds compare? Any suggested changes I could make? Thanks!

Pistons/Elixirs Conditions
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mMMzz9Mz0MoRvMMoRvMax0x0VmobMaq8070q7ow170m8ofj

Flamethrower Power
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mMMM9cz0movLMMoRvM0x0GGcRqMsmo8070q7owY70m8ofy

Play what you enjoy, it really is that simple. I enjoy P/P elixir build and used it all the way to 80 and still play it. Regarding PvE my issue is mob tagging in group events which sucks. Other than that the build works really well.

That P/P Elixir build is pretty much what I used for levelling – it worked fine. At higher levels I changed from Condition to more Power/Precision/Crit damage equipment as I found conditions tended to get lost in zergs (other people’s less effective conditions would push mine off the stack).

The big mistake I made in levelling was that I didn’t play much with kits and am now having to catch up on learning about the strongest aspects of the Engineer (not least because these are required to get the Eng perform anywhere as good as other classes), so it’s good you’re looking at a kit based build.

Regarding your FT build, I’m currently playing around with a similar build and while it’s much harder work to play it performs better than the P/P/Elixir build I was using. I’d suggest the following for this build:

• Drop Infused Precision (Firearms 10) for Precise Sights (mass stacks of vulnerability with the FT #1), Hair Trigger (quicker cooldowns on rifle) or Rifled Barrels (longer range on rifle, harpoon gun, and Elixir Gun if you take that). With Speedy Kits and Kit Refinement you can have swiftness up almost all the time just from kit swapping, add Elixir B and you have effectively perma-Swiftness, all of which makes Infused Precision redundant.
• Hot swap between Backpack Regen (Alchemy 20) and Deadly Mixture when out of combat depending on whether you want a more defensive or more aggressive build.
• Consider dropping one of your elixirs for another kit, as that build is better traited for Kits than Elixirs. As well as allowing more synergies both personally and when grouped, this will also free up your options for the Alchemy 10 trait. The Elixir Gun, while not a strong kit (though it sounds like the Devs are looking at this, which is why I suggest it) is already traited in that build and stacks conditions, has some CC, an area regeneration toolbelt skill and a Light field (#5 Super Elixir which spawns on swap with Kit Refinement – you’ll use this a lot). Then there’s Grenades for ranged (and currently the Eng’s best performing kit at any range!), Tool Kit for melee, and Bombs for closer range combos. There’s also the Mortar, but no-one seems to use that.