Guild Wars 2

A little info, Engineer is my main class, and by far my favorite. I know there’s a lot of flak out there for engineers, and many players think them to be sub-par when compared to other classes; however I find that this is absolutely not true, and a skilled engineer is a menace on any battlefield. I have every intention of playing my engineer as my main no matter what Anet does to us, but that aside, I’m in desperate need of input from some seasoned engineers out there.

I’ve tried A LOT of builds, the grenade kit build, bomb kit, flamethrower, rifle dps, you name it. After fervently deciding that Dual Pistols was my favorite weapon, I came to rest upon a nice little dual pistols/elixirs condition build. I REALLY want to keep close to this build as I not only love playing it but it’s really quite effective. However, there’s always room for improvement, and I feel I’ve hit a bit of a wall in that regard. I now find myself stagnating, in desperate need of new input, a fresh perspective if you will; which is why I come to all of you wonderful players

A link to my build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcQQJAqalspSXHvSgF17IBoH5Vv8V0DMT5J/pAbB;TgAgyytEcJ1S1liLjKmBA

(I’m using full carrion armor with full runes of the traveler at the moment.)
So a run down of how this build works: As you enter combat, pop elixir B and either use glueshot or pop elixir U and use poison dart volley (in case of mobs). Use Elixir H and elixir U as needed, though personally I like to wait to use U until right before I poison volley. Wait to use elixir C until you have a very large amount of incoming conditions and few elixirs off cooldown, as using or throwing any elixir will remove a condition. This can also be used as a very effective support tool, throwing elixirs on allies to both buff them AND remove conditions. The general idea is to drop as many conditions on a many enemies as possible, but you aren’t just letting the conditions do all the work (although you [I] are traited primarily for CD.) With HGH, each elixir ALSO gives you might, so you have the added option of using currently irrelevant elixirs to gain extra might, regardless of their intended effects. In doing so, you end up pretty much constantly buffed to high heaven, your enemies are suffering heavily bleeding, poison, confusion, burning, and cripple, and with an average 10-14 stacks of might on you in the heat of a battle, you easily make up for the loss in physical power due to traiting towards CD and should have no trouble mopping up what your conditions didn’t already. You end up with great survivability, great DPS, great support, and you STILL have all the versatility the engineer provides, able to switch out an elixir for a kit or other utility while maintaining overall effectiveness.

Phew! NOW, recently I’ve been faced with a few problems I wasn’t quite sure how to deal with, but hopefully someone here has found a solution! Now, I realize the draw backs of condition builds in general, but I’m adamantly sticking with it. However, the biggest draw backs of this build are; a lack of raw immediate DPS, and a lack of mobility (Granted that is just an engineer problem in general, not specific to this build). Primary concern, I need a way to increase the raw damage I deal with straight attacks, plain and… not so simple. I’m happy with my survivability, my utility, and quite happy with my condition dps, but as we all know, conditions are very situational, and sometimes they just wont cut it. In situations where the enemy is highly resistant to/immune to/generally unhampered by my conditions, I have to fall back on auto attack and buffs for damage; which is all fine and well as long as I have my might stacked up, but once that dwindles and starts hinging on elixir cool-downs to keep it at a lowly 3 or 4 stacks as opposed to 10 or 12, kitten goes downhill fast. I need someway to rectify that without seriously reducing my CD or survivability, which is much easier said than done. Absolutely ANY constructive input (criticism or otherwise) on this build and/or strategy is MORE than welcome! I’m really at a stand still here and have no clue how to enhance this build. Please help!
(Also for those of you who actually read through all that, bravo, and thank you!)

TL;DR: How can I improve my raw DPS without hurting my CD or survivability? How could I enhance this build in general? Thanks a million!

your build is well done, very similar to mine. I would drop elixir C since you already have 409.
tell me something tho, are you looking for advice regarding pve or wvw?

if you just want to improve your dps in pve, drop C and maybe slot in bombkit. Myself, I use elixir gun for pve, wont boost your dps but has very useful skills especially in dungeons.
if its a wvw thing I’d advise you to put toolkit in there and get rid of blood injection, fast acting elixirs or potent elixirs will work better imo and also give you a boost to mobility due to permanent (in combat) swiftness.
check my own build for ideas and input: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Mask-s-new-WvW-build-preview

Really I’m trying to find a balance between PvE and WvW, but I do put precedence on PvE. I’ve tried slotting in bombkit and grenade kit but they’re just to clunky to synergize with this build imo. You’re right about dropping C though, it’s very situational and I usually rotate that last utility between elixers C, S, & R; C being for condition heavy battles, R for dungeons and utility, and S for mobility. I also slot in tool kit from time to time but only when I need a melee weapon due to reflectivity (god kitten jades).
However, I spent some time doing the math and while switching out blood injection sounds appealing, taking blood injection gives me just two CD shy of an extra 100, which is roughly a whole 5 dps per tick of bleeding, 25 dps per tick of burning, and 10 dps per tick of poison. I gotta admit, sustainable swiftness would be nice, but I don’t think it’s worth it here.
Nice build btw, might I ask why you took cloaking device over incendiary powder though? Incendiary powder is plain ridiculous imo, and cloaking device seems a little too situational. Not to mention the additional +10% condition duration is pretty nice too

I can’t speak too much from the pve standpoint, having only run a few fractals and dungeons. However, cloaking device really must be used before you assess it. Like you, I was not a believer in the trait – as it seemed gimmicky. However, in wvw and pvp it is very effective at helping you mitigate damage, giving you time to heal or cleanse conditions, or allowing you to better position yourself for the next attack.

Chained with the stealth from Toss Elixir S (if you are 50% lucky) means that you can really throw some opponents off and change the tempo of the fight in your favor. It is a phenomenal escape mechanism.

Also, blood injection looks great on paper and on the character stats, but 20% cd reduction on elixirs means you can keep might up higher. I’m not sure of the math, but since might benefits both power and condition attacks – it might come out ahead of the ~100 condition damage you gain from blood injection.