Guild Wars 2

Greetings,

I recently decided to roll an engi for tPvP but i pretty much have no idea what to do and how to play. I searched the forums a lot but i still cant find a build that i like and can use effectively, mostly because… well… i suck. So i though id ask for advice here.

Here is what i look for in a build:

• lots of CC.
  A minimum of 2 hard CCs is a must. I want to be able to use one CC to interrupt the enemy heal and go for the kill and still have one more in case someone tries to ress the downed enemy. I d like to have and unblockable iterrupt, but the only one i found is the mine. Is there anything else that is ublockable but its not mentioned in the tooltip? (we all know how great the tooltips can be sometimes…)

• a stomp/ress trick. The only ress trick i have seen so far is using elixir S. For stomp i also found the FT blind but i dont know if there is something that i m missing. I just want to be able to stomp a downed enemy reliably at least in 1v1.

• a respectable amount of survivability whether it is from gear or from skills. Being new to the engi i dont feel comfortable going for a berserker build that has no blocks, escape options or tougness/vitality but does maximum dmg. I m open to the idea of a bunker spec, but i dont know if it can be effective without stabilty

• i d prefer to go for power or hybrid rather than full conditions. I ve been maining a necro almost since release, but i got bored of it since with the latest changes we are pretty much pidgeon holed in a 30-20-0-0-20 rabid condition build and i d like a change.

• Is it viable to use a shield on a power or hybrid build? Perhaps by using a kit as main weapon and switchin to P/S for the block/CC from the shield?

• how do u deal with the rifle #4 knockback? is there any trick to avoid the knockback? the lack of stability makes me afraid to use it and i dont know if it is usefull to use my stun break for this since i ll stay without a stun break for quite some time…

I ve tried and tested various build but since i dont know the class it seems like i cant make anythig work.

Finally is there any guide about tips and tricks of the class? I m looking for things that can separate the good players from the bad…

I d appreciate any kind of help even it is on basic/noob-y stuff

Sorry for the long post
Regards,
Enferian

I’m not sure how effective a power build can be in tpvp, I personally run a condition spec. But I’ll try to give you some advice from a PvP perspective so you can have some more to work with.

I personally use my engi as a far point assaulter in my tPvP team. My goal is to get to the enemy’s back point as quickly as i can and either take it or keep it neutral for as long as possible while my team focuses on back point and center. To do so I focus my build on blinds, blocks, and toughness/ protection to boost my survivability while loading them with conditions.

==CC:
I am pretty sure, but not completely positive, that Magnet on the Toolkit can interrupt blocking enemies. Its a great opener when assaulting a point to pull them off.
Otherwise, there are plenty of other options for cc. Bomb Kit’s big ol bomb is probably the best, its a short cooldown launch, but Overcharge shot on rifle and Magnetic Inversion on shield are also great options. There’s also Personal Battering Ram, but I’m not sure how effective it is to run in a tournament setting.

==Stomp Tricks:
-Use Elixir S and stomp
-Use Elixir S toolbelt for either stealth or stability, then stomp
-Use FT blind for stomp
-drop smokebomb or use Flame Turret for a blindfield, then stomp
-drop smokebomb or use Flame Turret, followed by Magnetic Inversion for 3s stealth, then stomp
-Use big Ol Bomb or overcharge shot to knock them off the point, then let them bleed out.
-Don’t forget that you can rez teammates (or even yourself!) with Elixir R’s toolbelt skill

==Survivability:
-Look into Trait options, Protection Injection, Protective Shield, and Stabilized Armor can all go a long way towards boosting your survivability
-Try Earth or Forge Runes
-Healing Turret with blast finishers can heal for a LOT, while removing conditions
-Elixir Gun #5 is a heal field
-Smoke bomb, Flame Turret, and Static shot for spamming blinds
-Shield and Toolkit together can give you 5 sec straight of blocks
-Rocket boots is an extremely good escape skill if you need to retreat from a fight

==Power vs. Conditions:
I run conditions in TPvP, sorry. I use a FT/EG build in WvW, but it is based on constantly retreating and repositioning and that’s not very useful in Conquest. A guild buddy of mine runs Engi in tPvP as well and he uses Grenades/Bombs in a power build, and it seems to work pretty well for him.

==Shield:
It is possible to run shield in a Power build, generally people tend to do that in a full Grenade build, or possibly with Bombs or even FT/EG. Its kind of hard to justify the loss of burst in a pure power build though.

==Overcharge Shot:
My best recommendation is never using it when you are outnumbered. In a balanced 1v1 or 2v2 setting your opponents suffer more from being CC’d than you. Another option would be to use the Toolbelt on Thumper Turret for 1s of Stability right before you use it, but that would require taking Thumper Turret. :/

==Fun Tricks:
Hmmm, trying to think of some. My favorites are the stealth combos, using smoke fields. The best finishers are probably Rocket boots or Magnetic Inversion. Speaking of rocket boots, be aware it applies the blast finisher for the entire jump, not just at the start or the end.
You can throw Elixir R right before you get downed, and it will rez you.
If you put 15 points into Tools, and run medkit and either Elixir Gun or Slick Shoes, your healing skill and stunbreaker will reset when you hit 25% health. Its a lifesaver.

Not sure what else i can say, if you have any more questions I’ll try to answer them. I definitely recommend looking into condition builds though, Engis are some of the best condition users in the game.

Thanks a lot for the reply

I will try all the tricks u mentioned right away to get the hand of it.

I feel rather disheartened that power might be inferior to conditions… i was really hoping that i wouldnt have to play a condition build again, but i ll give it a try anyway

I was looking at all the engi skills again, and i get the feeling that interrupting the enemy heal will be difficult due to various reasons like long cast time (magnet), activation delay (BoB), very close range (battering ram).

Do i feel like this becuase necro had longer range interrupts or is it something that other engies feel too?

Also do u thing that celestial amulet can be a viable choise?
I ve noticed that most kits and many utility-tool belt pairs of skills have some abilities that scale well with DD and other that scale with CD. So i thought that maybe i could take advantage of both…

Finally i ve seen some of Ceimash’s guides and they seem very helpfull, but some seem a bit old… do u have in mind any other similar guides that i can look into?

Its not so much that Power is inferior, I’ve just found that it doesn’t match well with what you need to survive in sPvP. In dungeons, general pve, even WvW power does very well, but it doesn’t match well with what i need in tourneys.

Your best bet for interrupting a heal is probably overcharge shot or Magnetic inversion, or if you use flamethrower, Air blast. We dont have anything like Doom in terms of instant long range interrupt. Engis in general tend to be very in your face in terms of range.

I’ve not tried running celestial, but I highly doubt it. If you want to try hybrid Condition/Power you might want to try a carrion amulet, but generally going either full Rabid or Berserker is a better choice. You’re welcome to experiment though, you might have some success with it.

I’m not sure what there is with guides, I haven’t used any for a long time and by now, even if i could find them, they’d be out of date :/

What sort of role were you trying to build towards with your Engi? Far Point? Teamfighter? Lockdown? Roamer?

If you have an idea of what role you want to play in a match you can get a better sense of direction for how you want to build.

I’m wondering if any other engis have had troubles with all the stun warriors and interrupt mesmers in tpvp lately. If I’m ever in a position where I don’t see the stun/interrupt attack coming and can’t block it, I’m basically chain-cc’d for the duration of my short lifespan. Any specific build that might counter all the stun craziness lately?

@xev

I’m actually having trouble running my condition build in WvW anymore cause I don’t have a stunbreaker, and Warrior’s 4s Stun → 100 blades is brutal. Protection Injection and Stabilized armor together go a long way, and 15 tools + elixir gun alone can give you 2 get out of jail free cards. Thankfully I haven’t had to deal with any in tourneys yet.

If you wanna go nuts a fun troll build would be EG + Thumper + Medkit + Slick Shoes for 6 stunbreakers.

Thanks again for the reply

As for what role i d like to play i m not sure yet…
I m still trying to figure out what the engineer is capable of… If u have in mind any gameplay videos from good players please tell me since that would help a lot.

I mostly solo queue lately so i definitely dont want a build that relies a lot on the team. I think that a roamer or a lockdown build would be the better choices.

I tried today this build that seems to do pretty well:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUl0p6ZnrSZF1LJxIFfuzgeYX/2XRFy/nCsF-TkAA2CnI4SxljLDXSus1MKB

I often swaped bomb kit for tool kit or net turret for throw mine. I m not sure if i prefer med kit or healing turret as they both seem to have their advantages. My biggest problem with med kit is the immobilize since i can only remove it with overcharged shot which often got me into more trouble…

I also tried berserker amulet but since i m not yet good at chaining my abilities i found it less effective… i ll practive a bit more and try again the berserker amulet in a few days.
I d be very happy if we could get a power/precision/toughness amulet in sPvP….

Any input regarding the build would be appreciated…

If immobilize is becoming a problem, put 10 points into invention and get “Cloaking Device” you will love this trait

Also, T-Turret is really situational on a long cd, I would recommend bringing “Flame Thrower” instead, you get a push/interrupt on a short CD, #2 can deal great dmg once you learn to use it and #5 can be used to safely stomp most classes. (Don’t auto attack it flame thrower tho, it’s mostly for utility)

0/20/30/20/0
fireforged trigger, juggernaut, stabilized armor, protective shielding, reinforced shield, protection injection, backpack regenerator.
p/s, healing turret, ft, rocket boots, slick shoes
4x grove 2x earth
clerics/soldiers

have fun.

Thank you both for the replies

I used T-Turret mostly for the stun breaker and the 1 sec stability to use with overcharged shot. The 3 extra blast finishers from this skill alone for healing turret combos or smoke bomb combos where very appealing despite the long cd… but i ll give FT a try anyway and hope that the lack of stun break wont affect me that much. Thanks

The problem with immobilize is against melee abilities… often in a big fight i cant easily see the immobilize coming through all the effects and fail to dodge it and then i get burst down by blurred frenzy combo, 100b, or sword/dagger thieves… thats why i m afraid that cloaking device might not help but i ll give it another try

Nakoda, i ll try your build too, but i d like to know what role i should take. Should i go for mid point defence? or far point and get away with rocket boots/super speed when i get too much pressure? Also what is the radius of slick shoes? would i be able to knock down a melee attacker if i m immobilized/stuned or should i circle around my target?
Wouldnt it be better to use shaman amulet to do at least decent dmg since i ll have good access to al these conditions?

I ve never tried bunkering before but it seems like a good time to start doing so

quite honestly, you can do all three.

you can bunk home against 2-3 defenders (usually 2, three is rough)
you can bunk mid and keep it cc’d with area heals for your dps
you can hard cc far point and keep it neuted.

the only thing you cannot do is burst dps/condi burst.

i have tried shamans, and still have a shaman/cleric in my bag, but i think i get more survivability out of higher healing than toughness (for regen) and the little extra vit from the soldiers jewel.

ft is funny, like a theif or ranger, you want to be constantly getting out of your foes line of sight, so always be circling around them. you have so much cc it is sick, so just plug away and keep at it.

slick shoes radius is determined by your mobility, it is as far as you can run in 2 seconds. f you rocket boots + super speed, that’s a long ways.

practice strafing around yoru enemies, i tend to run in to them to stack the oil on them and keep knocking them over.

oh ya, stun duration and energy runes.

i tried the bunker build very briefly ( 2 matches) and i like it a lot
my only concern are the “limited” blast finishers to use with HT…
I m reluctunt to use rocket boots as a blast finisher as it will push me off point and since i often used magnetic inversion for the knockback i was left with only the detonate healing turret. am i doing something wrong?

Also super speed doesnt seem to give double speed as the tooltip says…it seems like i get a speed bonus similar to swiftness. Is this a bug?

I really like to be able to heal downed allies for 3-5k with HT and blast finishers and even more with regen while at the same time toping off my health. I honestly did this a few times while trying to save myself but seeing the player i was tryin to ress get up too was quite the satisfaction
I m not sure he didnt rally due to a kill though but i doubt it :P

If you don’t have many blasts you want to burn on Healing Turret you can always Drop→ Overcharge→ pickup, puts it on a much shorter cooldown so you can use it again quickly.

Superspeed is no different from swiftness out of combat, but in combat it makes you ignore the 30% or so combat speed reduction. You move at out of combat + swiftness speed while in combat, and you can pretty much ignore cripple and chill’s effects.

you have rocket boots and magnetic inversion for your blast finishers, plus your teammates blast finishers.

re: boots off point, almost every point in the game has some structure like a fence or barricade near it. use that to stop you from going too far.

sometimes, ya, i pop super speed to stun break then rocket boots out of trouble, and i go wayyyy farther than i’d like, but .. i think the overall CC in this guild compensates because those are rare occasions.

Enferian.2705:

• i d prefer to go for power or hybrid rather than full conditions.

no condi no gg

RaynStargaze.6510:

Enferian.2705:

• i d prefer to go for power or hybrid rather than full conditions.

no condi no gg

False.

Thank you all for the input

The bunker build seems to go pretty well, but i m having serious trouble against guardians and warriors. My lack of stability and their access to a lot of CC coupled with their good access to stability makes it hard for me to survive. Am i doing something wrong?