Guild Wars 2

Disclaimer: I played Mesmer and Ranger since release … took a break for a year and am back and playing Engineer more and more.

I was just playing around with the idea: “What would be a stupidly mobile Engineer that would be difficult to pin down?”.

I came up with this:

• http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFA0EtbtvLeeRSdBN6nEluEqBCqAIqFC-TVgRAAw+DiBgJ-w

Note: 2 trait points (and some other options) are intentionally unallocated as I think there are several decent choices for them.

Anti-CC/Conditions:

• Cripple, Chill, and Immobilize duration are reduced by 98% (25% + 40% + 33%).
• Other conditions are reduced by 65%
• Protection when CC’d
• 2 Stunbreakers
• Reduced damage when KD’d/Stunned

Extra Mobility:

• Speedy Kits for perma-swift
• 3 leaps via Rocket Boots, Elixir Gun, and Rifle.
• Slick shoes for deterring people chasing you
• Super Speed for gaining double OOC speed even when in combat.
• You have reduced toolbelt cooldowns and reset toolbelt skills at 25% hp … so more Super Speed and Stunbreaking.

Misc:

• Reduced cooldowns on Elixir and Gadgets for even more leaping from Elixir Gun and Rocket Boots.

Basically, a pain in the butt to catch.

I’m curious if anyone has played like this before and if they had much fun with it. I could see it being effective in WvW for scouting and/or running supply.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQJAqelUUpdr9dxzLseRCbBNqxAqJI6NWli8xIEAA-T1hAABhp8jQ9AZv/wpq/AwJAYjHAAbKBJFATKrA-w

try this.
reasons for the change:
- backpack regenerator will give you more survivability than “reduced dmg on stun” could. Most builds can easier immobilize than stun you, especially since almost all need to be in meele range to stun (which is one of the reasons why supply-crate is so powerful^^).
- Automated response will save your kitten more effectively than leg-mods. If you dis-agrre, realocate the points again.
- Runes of Antitoxin are more effective than melandru for defensive condi-builds.
- You don’t need speedy gadgets, you already have 2 leaps + superspeed. Took the 2 points from it, added them up with the remaining 2 ones and added incendiary powder to give you acceptable condi-pressure for your build.
- Elixir-gun has more synergy with condi-builds than with power, hence switched rifle to pistol/shield to account for that. that also adds another blast-finisher and 2 options to avoid ranged pressure with shield.

current trademarks:
50% condi-duration (70% burning duration) / -64% condi-duration (-114% below 33% health)
4 low-cd blast-finishers + water/light fields
250h/s base regeneration
65% vigor uptime / perma-swiftness
clears 2 condis per 20sec (15 sec if picked up) + 1 condi-clear every 16sec + 1 condi-transmute every 15sec
2 leaps + superspeed
1 block for 1.5sec / 1 reflect for 3sec
decent condi-pressure
acceptable health
decent toughness
acceptable crit-chance

if you like to have more dodges, switch sigil of smoldering with energy.
switching it with sigil or torment also yields good results.
Keep in mind to use rocket-boots primarily together with superspeed, to make your stunbreaker worth it AND profit from the increased leap-range (seriously, superspeed + rocketboots is a insane distance you get to / away from your target).

Essentially the idea of a mobile engi is nice. Still I prefer to utilize that mobility to kite’n’kill stuff instead of running away.
But regardless what you do, Nike Warris and Ele’s will still outrun you on their respective runner builds. catching / escaping from everything else is now possible, tho.

Arantheal.7396:

But regardless what you do, Nike Warris and Ele’s will still outrun you on their respective runner builds. catching / escaping from everything else is now possible, tho.

i think he could keep up with a warrior actually, they barely outrun me with just rocket boots/jump shot vs gs/ham, and not many go gs/sword cuz then they wont even take a camp or kill someone.

fgs though… silly to try. but tbh every ele should be taking that regardless of build, people just dont complain about it much cuz its on a long cd.

Thanks, Arantheal.

I was thinking it could probably be done with Celestial or Condition and using the Rifle mainly for its mobility and CC. The added mobility was why Rifle was initially selected though.

I don’t think I’m losing too much by not having the Pistol+Shield given that with Elixir Gun the only condition damage abilities I’d be using from Pistol are #2 and #3. Those would be nice to have though … as would the blocks. Looks like something that should be tinkered with ;-)

I’m not a fan of Automated Response because of two reasons:

• It doesn’t kick in till I’m at 50% hp.
• It doesn’t affect conditions already on me before it kicks in.

Runes of Antitoxin could definitely replace Melandru if focusing on condition damage. The only downside I see is losing some of the stun reduction, but I think that’s fine given that most stuns aren’t that long and it’s only 25% … we’re talking usually only shaving 0.25 to 0.5 off a stun with that.

I agree with wanting to be able to kill while kiting. That is part of why I listed this. I think the “more mobile version” could kill those without much/any condition removal, but the rest would have to be worse players than you in order to get the kill.

I think a Nike Warrior would be hard-pressed to chase someone they can’t even run in a straight line at that can also run at double-OOC speed while the Warrior is running at combat speed (assuming he ever got you in combat).

Lastly … perhaps this could be a good/fun build for quick map completion and/or gathering.

about rifle in terms of mobility:
the netshot is certainly nice to catch running targets, or to lock a chasing target for a few seconds to cover more ground initially.
But jumpshot is only good for closing in for a follow-up blunderbus / OS. for running away / chasing the cast-time upon initially jumping with it eats great amounts of the displayed range, that you could otherwise have been run. with swiftness you roughly cover a 250-300 range to your target. not worth it in my opinion to choose it over pistol/shield for nothing but netshot, and a couple of bleeds from blunderbus.
Even tho OS also works decently to initially get air between you and your opponent, shield #4 performs better on that regard since it can be blasted with healing turrets or its BA…

If we were speaking about a celestial approach, rifle would be viable in this build, but with so few power you don’t really profit from the jumpshot/blunderbus spike, so you really want to have pisol #2/3.

Thanks. You make some more good points :-p

Figured the 20% cooldown on gadgets wasn’t really worth it for just a few seconds off the boots so that freed up some points as well.

This looks still pretty darn mobile while packing more of a condition damage punch.

• http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdMQJAqelUUpdr9dxzLseRCbBNyx8GQNBRuxq8xIEAA-TVw2AAw+DiBgJ-w

I could see it being used with Celestial or Rabid/Sinister gear depending on preference of Toughness/Power. Probably leaning more toward Rabid/Sinister.

Not sure about Sigils yet though.

if you go down the condi-route, good sigils are:
smoldering, energy, blight, torment, doom, cleansing, bursting, corruption, malice and leeching.
A random combination of either of those will yield good results.

Here are some suggestions for combos with great synergy:
for max dmg: malice + corruption (or bursting if you get killed often)
for max defense: energy + cleansing
for max condis: doom (or blight, if you face 1vx often) + torment
for capitalizing on burning: smoldering + torment (good additional cover-condi)

Also, if you go for rabid/sinister, make sure that your trinkets are rabid. You wanna have more toughness than power. And on condi-builds, giver are always the best solution for weapons, especially if you run main/off-hand for that extra 20% condi-duration. If you stil lrather take stats with direct condi-dmg, make your weapons rabid as well.
Even tho Sinister is nice dps, condi-builds in general have a rather long wind-up time, so regardless what you do, fights tend to take a bit longer than on power-burst builds. You really need that extra survivability.

Arantheal.7396:

especially if you run main/off-hand for that extra 20% condi-duration

(2 handed weapons were buffed to 20%)

insanemaniac.2456:

Arantheal.7396:

especially if you run main/off-hand for that extra 20% condi-duration

(2 handed weapons were buffed to 20%)

And I crafted 2 ascended pistols, instead of switching my predator’s stats…
kitten you a-net.

note: it was meant for a cele build.

edit: nevermind, seems that giver stats are still not available for legendaries.

I’ve been playing with this type of high mobility mobility build for a little while too – at first, damage was lacking, but I have refined the build into this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlsTpdr9dx+KseRSeBNykUlQVBQGgBIyAOQA-TlCBABGpEbPdA8o+TXKJcUJIEXAg6MxglyBAeAA9s/gYAKC-w

I’m using a mix of berserker’s and knights gear, but defenses are great with the mobility, two stun breakers, high vigor uptime, and protection injection. Build uses rifle, EG, rocket boots, and elixir S. I tried slick shoes instead of elixir S for more mobility but found that my survivability was better with the invulvernability and stealth.

Jumpshot > Acid bomb combo is great ranged damage burst on a point (use net shot first if you’re using it against a single target). I have been able to outrun Nikes with this, and almost chase them down (this build is better at escaping than gap closing).

This is one of my biggest gripes about this class how slow they are you have speedy kits other than that its not much you can do without severely gimping you’reself.

err, running rocketboots and slick-shoes together is not “severly gimping yourself” since not only do they come with great synergy, they cover a good load of utility for almost every build. aoe-kockdown, superspeed/stunbreak, long duration burn/dmg, blast-finisher/dmg/immob+chill+cripple clear.
all that from just 2 utilities. you still are free to run nades, bombs, flamethrower or elixir Gun…

here, have a condi-burst build with great mobility:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQJAqalUUpErdexvLseRCbBNyxEGQtBRtxPfgAkUA-T1xCABA8AAOZ/BsU+d8JAYP9AXq+zYKBJFgdLrA-w

tom.7468:

This is one of my biggest gripes about this class how slow they are you have speedy kits other than that its not much you can do without severely gimping you’reself.

yo power shoes comes with a heal reset, no gimping there bro

Super Speed from the Toolbelt for Slick Shoes makes the Rocket Boots jump go even further … and allow you to continue moving faster than OOC even when someone gets you in-combat.

That being said, I can completely understand needing some invuln + stealth. I think both are good options.

Thanks all for the good discussion. Engineer forum seems like a nice place :-)