Guild Wars 2

Greetings all!

So, after leveling pretty much every class to 80, participating in my fair share of WvWvW and the infamous World Boss daily shuffle…I’m finding myself wanting to try this class. After popping the insta-20 leveling scroll, I’m wanting to know a few things, and thought to pick the brains of those of you who’ve been playing the class for awhile.

1. Best weapon set up for PVE and WvWvW
2. Best build to use for leveling (but would also possibly work in WvWvW…I’m an addict)
3. Tips, tricks to get to know the class and to push through the leveling process.

Ideally, at end game, I’d like to do my fair share of dps in PVE while adding utility to dungeon runs and parties in World Boss fights and WvWvW. I’m not a fan of glass cannon builds in any class, but really tend to shy away from the “spam F2 and win” game play style.

This may be asking a lot, but I thought I’d come ask the experts before getting frustrated fumbling about on my own.

Cheers!

Hello, I don’t mean to hijack the topic, only to add to it. I recently started an engineer as well, and I’m thinking of trying out a more condition based build, since my necro is more power based. I was thinking of trying a sinister gear directed build, though I am open to opinions.

@Darkothe: Best weapon set depends on what is your main type of damage/role. Power goes to Rifle, Conditions goes to Pistol/Pistol, Support-ish goes to Pistol/Shield. However chances are you will stay most of the time swapping kits around and using whatever’s off-cooldown/is required at that point in time. Kits also have somewhat defined roles, with Grenade and Bomb being more damage oriented (can work both Power and Condi), and Tool, Flamethrower, Elixir and Mortar being more supportive.

For PvE it depends on what playing style you prefer; I believe in WvW Power is king with Grenades/Mortar for zerging, probably Toolkit for the shield/magnet and Elixir S for narrow escapes.

Grenades/Bombs deal a fair amount of DPS be it Power or Condi (won’t be out-damaging an Ele or Warrior though) in PvE; if you want to be more supportive you can do a 4-kit build with Elixir Gun and Mortar for support, Toolkit for utility and Bomb/Grenade for damage. Engineers have access to ample Blast Finishers, so you should aim to support with those, be it granting Might (Fire Bomb field), Stealth (Smoke Bomb field) or Healing (Healing Turret/Cleansing Burst; Elixir Shell (Mortar)).

@LezardValeth: Chances are you’ll want to run Pistol/Pistol for Condi; Bomb Kit has Burning/Confusion while Grenade Kit has Bleed/Poison, so you might want to take either of them. Toolkit is always a nice addition to any build (Prybar hits hard and gives 5 Confusion stacks, as well as GearShield/Magnet). If you’re talking about PvP though, I believe someone’s been using an ElixirGun/Flamethrower condi build and has posted it in this subforum.

Good stuff! Thanks Ignis!

whats the recommendation for a dungeon build, more a kit/condi supportish build?

im kinda undecided if – for pve, leveling, dungeons – which is more fun -

a grenade / pistol build (assuming pistol 1 gets fixed sson), focussing on vulnerability, bleed, crits,

or a pistol / flamethrower build focussing on might generation, burns and tankiness

I am grateful ignis. This is very insightful.

You should start here:
http://www.wolfineer.com/

For PvE, Brazil from [DnT] already put up the DPS dungeon build. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-k-BLJiBbA&feature=youtu.be

It’s very thorough. He goes over the damage rotation and everything.

Don’t use conditions in PvE.

I’m not good on rune builds but I like a few skills…

I recommend having at least one “kit” as a utility skill like flamethrower because there are a few useful traits that revolve around it like swiftness for a period of time when switching to a kit or increased toughness when switching to flamethrower. I also recommend one escape skill if you’re a WvW’er like Elixir S or Rocket Boots.

nSan.4251:

1I recommend having at least one “kit” as a utility skill like flamethrower because there are a few useful traits that revolve around it like swiftness for a period of time when switching to a kit or increased toughness when switching to flamethrower. I also recommend one escape skill if you’re a WvW’er like Elixir S or Rocket Boots.

In the same boat as the OP.
I run solo around Silverwastes capping/defending and digging up chests and killing anything in the way. I have FT slotted (for swiftness via Streamlined Kits), but find it lackluster compared to my P+P damage. The P+P damage is not bursty, but those plant-mobs just melt with those conditions.

So the thing I am wondering is whether other engineers find the swapping of kits is “always” the most efficient and effective way to work through some content.

Just run Grenadier trait, toolkit, grenade kit and rifle turret. Use toolkit 5 to pull your enemy then your toolbelt skill for Grenade Barrage and enjoy the easy win until Anet fixes their broken game.

Phineas Poe.3018:

For PvE, Brazil from [DnT] already put up the DPS dungeon build. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-k-BLJiBbA&feature=youtu.be

It’s very thorough. He goes over the damage rotation and everything.

Don’t use conditions in PvE.

Def good rotation. I just did up a pve condition rotation.
Strong burst, dps trails off 20s-30s, then spikes again.
overall, the dps numbers I came up with are a good deal lower then his claims. 10-11kdps for a cond build vs 2600 armor.

however, I also can not reconcile HIS dps numbers. more then a few things seem to make no sense to me, and hes not being cooperative in explaining his numbers.

People say cond falls behind because of “ramp up”. these people are dumb, and have no idea what they are talking about.

Cond falls behind because of % modifiers. 10% Scholar, 10%night, 10% racial, 5% shaped charge, 10% explosion, 10% ex energy, 8-12% mod ammo, 5% force, 5% glass cannon.
69.5% damage modifier for all direct, 86.4% for explosions. then mod ammo8-12% on top of that.

Bursting’s 6% does NOT apply to total damage. it only applies to base, armor, and corruption. food, might, other buffs, pinpoint dist, etc do not get the 6% buff.

I talk to Brazil on a regular basis. His work is solid. No one puts up better speed clear builds than DnT does, anyway.

Phineas Poe.3018:

I talk to Brazil on a regular basis. His work is solid. No one puts up better speed clear builds than DnT does, anyway.

ok. Maybe you can help me.
this is the zerker spreadsheet for this “17,595” dps.
http://i.imgur.com/Q0DLHfT.png

he has base stats of 2557p, 1960 prec, 1060fero.

base stats are 1000 base.
1381 major, 961 minor stat on full ascended gear.
+175p, 100 ferocity scholar runes. Adding those to base attributes is very confusing.

2556p, 1961prec,1061fero
+920power, 170 prec/fero, 920 cond from might/banners.

3476p, 2131prec, 1231 fero, 920 cond
vs. his listed
3547p, 2550prec, 1230fero, 920 cond. 71 extra power unlisted, 419 precision unlisted.
13 power infusions would be 65 power. so not it.
Not saying is entirely wrong… just can’t make accurate dps comparisons if there are hidden buffs he is not disclosing.

Looking at his timetable.
Right off the bat.
Incendiary ammo. 8651 damage.
what? how is IA dealing 8.6k direct damage? Is it static discharge being listed poorly?
Lets see..
.350 coeff. 967 weapon damage. use the listed 3547 power. He told me uses “heavy armor” so 2600.
462 base hit. x1.695 for mods=782.6 x1.10% mod ammo=861.
2550 prec is 77.8% crit, with +20%% for HF and HC. 97.8% crit 231% damage crits
2.26 damage mod for crits.
861×2.26=1946×1.25 vul 2432 damage.
So no, its not static discharge.

Next up. Grenade barrage. note the burn starts ticking at 2295.
(0.155 * Condition Damage) + 131.5 damage per stack per second at Level 80
920cond d listed. 274/stack.
Barrage does apply all 3 stacks of incendiary ammo immediately.
3 stacks of burning x 274= 822×1.25 vul 1028 burning. where is that extra 1267 burning coming from? He does not have incendiary powder.
GB itself.
.5 coeff. 6 grenades. 967 weapon damage. 2600 armor. 25 vul
22,513 damage, not 32512. exactly 10k extra. (I see 7 vul, so he is counting 7 nades, 26,265damage then.)
326 bleed. one stack of bleed at 920 cond is 77.2 damage. 96.5 vul
6 crits .33% sharpshooter. 2 bleeds. 6 explosions. 15% shrapnel. 1 bleed.
3 bleeds at 96.5=289.5 (pretty close.. but still off..)

Napalm… again lists 7930 damage..
Napalm has like a .08 coeff per tick, for 10s.
So maybe 6613 over 10s.
Napalm then should add 1 extra stack of burning per second. But then his chart goes from 2295 to 3534. Again 1 stack of his burning with 25 vul should be 342.5, not 1239.

As I note in my signature, I don’t really get into this stuff anymore. After several people ripped off most of my work without acknowledgement, and then turned around and monetized it for themselves, I just can’t be bothered with it anymore.

Especially when Brazil is so dedicated, I don’t see what more I can do than what he’s already done. He’s a good guy, gives credit where it’s due, and admits when he’s wrong.

I suggest talking to him directly if you want answers.

i kinda hate that mmos always get to these “perfect builds” and “meta templates”…im really hoping we will one day see an mmo where just any build is equally viable

Nemesis.6938:

i kinda hate that mmos always get to these “perfect builds” and “meta templates”…im really hoping we will one day see an mmo where just any build is equally viable

as long as the game has maths something will be mathematically better. it’s the way of many to strive for efficiency.

Run Grenadier builds like everyone else the past week or so. Oh wait – too late to join on that bandwagon

It would be better if people spazzed out less about “the best”. And just worried more about checkpoints of acceptable benchmarks.

Like, lets say the “best” is 13k dps in a party.
Anything over 11k should be acceptable.
if your build is only putting out 7k dps though, thats a problem.