Guild Wars 2

PVE BUILD TANKY HEALY CONDI ENGI – A GUARDIAN ANCHOR ALTERNATIVE

WHO IS THIS BUILD FOR?

PvE Engineers who feel their current role is overshadowed by other professions, players who enjoy playing a healing and/or tanking archetype, and players who enjoy playing an Engineer. This is an advanced build with a very high skill ceiling.

TL;DR AT BOTTOM

BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION
(you can skip this part, but if you have any questions, return here)

I would like to start off by talking a little bit about my experiences and thought process in coming up with this build. First, I have a level 80 character of every profession with exotic or better gear except for a thief. I want each of my characters to have a specific role that they can excel in. For example, in my opinion, Warriors are the best at sustained DPS, Guardians are the “anchor” of a party, and Mesmers have the most utility. It is not a surprise that at the highest level of PvE, parties are saturated with only these, so called, tier 1 professions. This is unfortunate because Engineer is my favourite profession, but I end up playing one of the tier 1 professions because it is more accepted in the Guild Wars 2 community. Throughout my Engineer playtime, I have spent a lot of time and gold exploring different builds. I believe, now, I have come up with a role that the Engineer can excel in and be a valuable addition to a party even at the highest levels of PvE. This role revolves around Healing Power and Condition Damage. I am aware that these two attributes are very controversial in the community, but I hope to convince you otherwise with my Tanky Healy Condi Engi PvE build.

Without a doubt, Engineers cannot match the upfront and sustained damage of a Warrior. However, they do have access to a lot of conditions. In fact, Engineers have access to every condition in the game with the exception of fear. The great thing about damage inflicted by conditions is it only depends on 2 attributes: Condition Damage and Condition Duration. On the other hand, upfront damage depends on 3 attributes: Power, Precision, and Critical Damage. In addition, Condition Damage can be derived from Toughness with the use of 6 Superior Runes of the Undead and Master Tuning Crystals. Speaking of consumables, Rare Veggie Pizza gives a whopping 40% Condition Duration, which is one of the few sources of Condition Duration in addition to trait line, certain traits, certain runes, and Giver’s weapons. With this in mind, a character focusing on damage inflicted by conditions should invest in Condition Damage and Toughness gear. These two attributes are found in Rabid’s and Apothecary’s gear. The Precision from Rabid’s gear can be useful for proc’ing additional conditions from a Superior Sigil of Earth or certain traits, for example. However, Healing Power from Apothecary’s gear can be very beneficial with the right profession (I’ll give you a hint: he has a bomb kit).

A support Engineer with Elixir Gun and Elixir-Infused Bombs is not new. However, I have seen many Engineers use Cleric’s gear, probably because it is more accessible and well known. Now with the Living Story taking place in Southsun Cove, and the updates that have come with it, Karka Shells and Passion Flowers are more widely available, and the new ascended backpiece has Apothecary’s attributes too. Apothecary’s gear is now more accessible than ever and what better time to share this build than now. The benefit of Apothecary’s gear over Cleric’s for an Engineer is it takes advantage of the numerous conditions that can be applied from Pistol, Elixir Gun, and Bomb Kit. Also, Power is somewhat of a wasted attribute if not accompanied with high Precision and Critical Damage with regards to Cleric’s gear.

I have tested this build for the entire month of April running various dungeons and fractals and it performs very well. I feel like a Guardian anchor, but I can do a lot more like stealthing the party through certain parts. It is hard to judge how much damage you are producing, but I can kill trash mobs just as quickly as a Guardian anchor. If you would like to see how this build performs, you can send an in-game mail to Volcanis and I can run this build with a party of your choosing. I do not claim to have mastered this build, but I can provide a decent demonstration.

BUILD

Apothecary’s everything. Pistol of Life + Shield of Battle. 6 Runes of the Undead. Healing Turret + Elixir Gun + Bomb Kit + Elixir R + Supply Crate. Rare Veggie Pizza + Master Tuning Crystal. My current gear:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/engineer/?2.0|a.1f.h6.e.1f.h1h|0.0.0.0.0.0|1f.719.1f.719.1f.719.1f.719.1f.719.1f.719|31m.0.21m.0.31m.0.1b.68.1b.68.3w.0|u283.0.u57b.0.a6|30.d|2c.2v.2e.2i.30|e

Note: I will be replacing the Rabid’s backpiece and accessories with Apothecary’s once I have enough Passion Flowers and Guild Commendations.

I believe my gear, skill, and trait choices are obvious, but if not, I’ll add a section here about that. The reason why I go 30 into Explosives is because if I have to attack from range for a particular encounter, I can swap Forceful Explosives for Grenadier and replace Bomb Kit with Grenades.

I will not go through an explanation on how to use this build because it is best to learn how to use it yourself. I will, however, go through some highlights of the build to get you excited about it.

TANKY

With over 3000 Armor and 15000 Health, this build will act like an anchor to hold agro for the party. In addition, Automated Medical Response will give you a second life as it recharges Healing Turret or Cleansing Burst when you dip below 25% Health. Another way to take advantage of Automated Medical Response is to use Healing Turret for your party and if you get in trouble, Healing Turret will recharge for you when you need it.

HEALY

One thing to note about the party healing potential is the party has to be quite close to the Engineer to maximize its potential. This is not much of a problem because many experienced speed runs of dungeons involve stacking of some sort.

Highlights of the party healing potential of this build (1427 Healing Power)

• Healing Turret: constant party regeneration (323 per tick)
• Cleansing Burst: 2646 party heal, 3 second water field, and constant party regeneration (323 per tick)
• Regenerating Mist: 1 second water field and 6 seconds of party regeneration
• Super Elixir: 1335 party heal and 10 seconds of healing (364 per tick)
• Healing Mist: 10 seconds of party regeneration (323 per tick)
• Elixir-Infused Bombs: healing bombs (303 per bomb)
• 4 reliable blast finishers: area healing (1685 per blast)

4 consecutive area healing

Note: Acid Bomb is currently queued, which will be the 4th area healing

Here is my burst party healing rotation to achieve the above screenshot:

Big Ol’ Bomb – Healing Turret – Cleansing Burst – Magnetic Shield – Magnetic Inversion – Detonate Healing Turret – Acid Bomb

This rotation heals the party for 10355 over 3 seconds and can be performed every 24 seconds.

Using Healing Turret, Super Elixir, and any bomb in the Bomb Kit will heal for 1000 every second for 10 seconds (+1335 from Super Elixir impact heal) for a total of 11335 party healing with 10 seconds of downtime between rotations. For the sake of comparison, you only heal the party for 5800 with no Healing Power.

CONDI

Highlights of the damage inflicted by conditions with this build (1364 Condition Damage with 3 stacks of might + 70% Condition Duration):

• Fire bomb can maintain constant burning (669 per tick)
• Poison Dart Volley and Fumigate can maintain constant poison (220 per tick)
• Tranquilizer Dart can maintain 8 stacks of bleeding and constant weakness (110 per tick)
• Steel-Packed Powder and Fumigate can put 19 stacks of vulnerability at a time (19% damage)
• Concussion Bomb and Static Shot can put 9 stacks of confusion (3011 per skill)
• Shrapnel has a chance to put a 20 second bleed and can proc 15 times using the below rotation

Look at all these conditions

This is my DPS rotation to achieve the above screenshot:

Fire Bomb – Smoke Bomb – Glue Bomb – Concussion Bomb – Static Shot – Fumigate – Tranquilizer Dart

One thing to note about characters that focus on damage inflicted by conditions is they fare poorly against structures. However, Bomb has a very high damage coefficient. I averaged 783 damage per second with Bomb against a Practice Dummy in LA with 1468 Power, which is respectable.

SUPPORT

Highlights of the party condition removal with this build

• Cleansing Burst: removes 2 conditions every 15 seconds
• Fumigate: removes 1 condition per tick (5 ticks total) from allies in the cone of effect (can potentially remove 20 conditions) every 12 seconds (Legendary Archdiviner says hi)
• Super Elixir: removes 1 condition on impact and provides a light field (projectile and whirl finishers remove conditions) every 20 seconds
• Toss Elixir R: removes 1 condition on impact and provides a light field (projectile and whirl finishers remove conditions) every 108 seconds

Toss Elixir R is usually reserved for when you are about to go down to get yourself back up or to revive an ally. It is one of the best reviving skills in the game

Highlights of the utility of this build

• 10 seconds of stealth: Big Ol’ Bomb – Healing Turret – Smoke Bomb – Magnetic Shield – Magnetic Inversion – Detonate Healing Turret – Acid Bomb
• 12 stacks of might: Big Ol’ Bomb – Healing Turret – Fire Bomb – Magnetic Shield – Magnetic Inversion – Detonate Healing Turret – Acid Bomb
• Toss Elixir U: blocks / reflects projectiles for 9 seconds

One thing to note when using Tool Belt skills is even when they are on cooldown, you can change the parent utility skill to another utility. For example, I can use Toss Elixir U and then swap Elixir U to Elixir R and have access to Elixir R and Toss Elixir R instantly.

CONTROL

Highlights of control effects with this build

• Knockback: Magnetic Inversion
• Stun: Static Shield
• Daze: Throw Shield
• Launch: Big Ol’ Bomb
• Potentially remove 5 stacks of defiance (Throw Shield can daze twice)
• Crippled: Elixir F and Glue Bomb
• Immobilized: Glue Bomb
• Magnet: pulls a target without getting into combat (swap Tool Kit to another utility after a success pull)

CONCLUSION

The best way to summarize this build is a Guardian “anchor” build, but with a condition damage twist. Where the Guardian excels in projectile reflection and boons, the Engineer excels in combo fields and armor ignoring damage. However, I do not believe this build can replace a Guardian anchor in a high level party due to reflects being so useful. This is simply an alternative to a Guardian anchor with more healing, support, and control (and personally, a lot more fun).

One way to look at this build is it can accompany a Guardian anchor. I personally do not prefer running 2 Guardians because aegis does not stack in intensity. A party with 2/3 Warriors, 1 Guardian, 1 Engineer, and 1/0 Mesmer seems like a good party composition to me. Even a party with 3 Warriors, 1 Engineer, and 1 Mesmer does not look too bad either.

My hopes with publicizing this build is when you see an Engineer in a party, you can ask them if they are running a Tanky Healy Condi Engi build (or Vol’s Build), and if they are, you can plan your party around a decent anchor. Also, if you enjoy playing an Engineer (like me), here is a build that can play its role very well. In addition, if you find you are getting bored with playing a Guardian anchor, here is something new you can play around with that has the same feel, but with a dash of fun. Last, I hope to convert some players into playing an Engineer because they are a blast.

FUTURE WORK

I would like to try this build with Knight’s Armor with Ruby Orbs, Berserker’s Trinkets, Berserker’s Weapons with Sigils of Accuracy and Battle, Omnomberry Ghost, and a Potent Potion:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/engineer/?2.0|a.1g.h1.e.1g.h1h|0.0.0.0.0.0|1n.a7.1n.a7.1n.a7.1n.a7.1n.a7.1n.a7|2s.0.2s.0.3s.0.2s.0.3s.0.2s.0|u283.0.u57b.0.a6|54.k|2c.2v.2e.2i.0|e

This is the gear a Guardian anchor build uses and I would like to see the upfront damage from Bomb and the healing potential.

TL;DR

Apothecary everything. Pistol of Life + Shield of Battle. 6 Runes of the Undead. Healing Turret + Elixir Gun + Bomb Kit + Elixir R + Supply Crate. Rare Veggie Pizza + Master Tuning Crystal.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/engineer/?2.0|a.1f.h6.e.1f.h1h|0.0.0.0.0.0|1f.719.1f.719.1f.719.1f.719.1f.719.1f.719|31m.0.21m.0.31m.0.1b.68.1b.68.3w.0|u283.0.u57b.0.a6|30.d|2c.2v.2e.2i.30|e

• TANKY: 3199 Armor + 15082 Health.
• HEALY: 1427 Healing Power. 2 water fields + 10335 burst party heal over 3 seconds or 11335 party healing over 10 seconds
• CONDI: 1364 Condition Damage + 70% Condition Duration. Constant burning (669 per tick) + constant poison (220 per tick) + 9 stacks of confusion (3011 per skill) + 19 stacks of vulnerability + 20 second bleeds (110 per tick)
• 4 party condition removal skills + 2 light fields
• 4 blast finishers + smoke field = 10 s of party stealth
• 4 blast finishers + fire field = 12 stacks of might for party
• 5 CC skills to remove stacks of defiance

Thank you for putting these numbers together. This was actually something I wanted to test out myself in groups, I was trying to visualize what it would be like to have 5 Engineers heavily spec’d into Cleric and Apothecary. This will make it a lot easier for me to conduct some numbers. You also have the same utility setup that I run around with in Southsun Cove, However, I’ve been running something similar but with a power rifle. Both, however, get the job done.

You also have some slight variability within your trait setup allowing for an easy swap from front line to protective line with Shrapnel -> Grenadier and Speedy Kits -> Deployable Turrets.

I think the one thing that breaks my heart about this, and honestly it’s just a personal problem, is the 10 in Tools. I’ve actually gotten very VERY familiar with utilizing Elixir R to the fullest, but the long cd on its toss skill keeps me hampered. With a 15 in Tools, you’ll have access to Toss Elixir R twice from Inertial Converter. This is especially useful in Southsun Cove where the speed at which people go down in the Crazed Attack Events becomes ridiculous. (There’s also something bothering me about the notes in the wiki that I need to test. Will return with results.)

I’d have to sacrifice either 5 in Inventions or Explosives to get it though. Removing the constant bomb heal or the option to go into a Grenade Spec is a hard decision.

I feel you man and I used to run 20/0/30/0/20 back when Kit Refinement produced another Super Elixir when swapping to Elixir Gun. Inertial Converter is amazing and you can easily take away 5 points from Explosives and place it into Tools for it. However, I prefer to have the option to swap to Grenade Kit with Grenadier. Just some personal preference, but it keeps true to the build. It’s great that Engineers have so many cool traits.

Gratz on a great post Volcanis!

Like you, I have put in a lot time and gold into finding the right PvE/Dungeon build over the months. These months have gone by with hearing plenty talk about no dps, not a good fit, sure there must be messer/warrior that need to come? I have been playing these type of games for over 20 years, and one thing I know, all groups must have one tanky type, one healer type, and everything else is a support type. My engineer main role now support heal/condition removal. What most elities Tier 1 classes failed to understand most of the time is the hidden DPS factor. As a Engineer, I will never out DPS a equally equip Thief, Warrior, Messer, Ranger, etc. But at the same time, so many of the perfect DPS groups spend so much time running pass mobs or run into trouble if a fight last more than a CDs spent. The hidden DPS factor is where a support class-Engineer allows the DPSers to continue fightering and adding higher DPS instead of dodging constantly because someone is healing/removing conditions. I find it very strange how some players react to how smoothly dungeon runs are and how some challages were a cake walk. Everyone do not need to wear berseker gear for a party to have high DPS. High healing/Cond dmg/high Thoughness allows me to fight right next to the melee toons; My built of 10/20/10/20/10 or 10/20/10/30/0 if running is not required, allows me to throw flasks causing damage/healing/and removing conditions, the EG is the only weapon that I need 90% of the time. If a party member is down, I can drop the super elixir on the melee group to help keep them healed while I get the other person back in action.
I don’t know why so many players feel that groups can only be built but one way and spend all thier time running pass everything in the dungeon because it might cause a WIPE! Warriors without steady healing become MC Hammer dancers-You Can’t Touch This because they never stop dodging

Doc Holidaay-Support Engineer

_Here is my burst party healing rotation to achieve the above screenshot:

Big Ol’ Bomb – Healing Turret – Cleansing Burst – Magnetic Shield – Magnetic Inversion – Detonate Healing Turret – Acid Bomb

This rotation heals the party for 10355 over 3 seconds and can be performed every 24 seconds._

With burst like that, are healing bombs even necessary? Would it be better to place pts in Tools to reduce BoB cooldown instead?

Is it hard to pull off this burst, thus requiring constant bomb healing? This burst + EG#5 aren’t enough? Just trying to figure out where I can move traits if need-be. Most of the traits taken are ones I have no experience with. Why energized armor if you’re not running a power-dependent build? Seems like Protective Shield would be better served at keeping you alive. Or at this point is staying alive a foregone conclusion so you may as well buff your dmg where you can?

The burst is not difficult to pull off once you have practiced the rotation. It is reserved for emergency situations like a spike attack from a boss. Most of the healing comes from long-term healing via Regeneration, Super Elixir pulse healing, and Elixir-Infused Bombs, hence why I invest into Inventions. However, the burst party healing rotation can be incorporated into other builds and does not require any investment into Healing Power. With 0 Healing Power, that rotation heals for about 8000 Health. Also, keep in mind the burst only occurs once every 24 seconds, so it’s not something you cn rely on always.

Energized Armor is a bit of personal preference, but I think it’s the best Adept trait you can get. I still want to do decent damage against structures, so the extra 100 Power is nice, but Protective Shield is a valid alternative. You are correct that you don’t have much trouble staying alive, so the extra protection every 20 seconds may be wasted.

Interesting build, but where is the “anchor?”

What makes Guardians effective anchors is Binding Blade pulling multiple targets to one spot and then using a skill like Hammer’s Ring of Warding to keep them there. With their high Toughness mobs stick to them like glue.

Your setup includes skills like Big Ol’ Bomb and Magnetic Inversion in the rotation. These are AoE knockbacks that would do the opposite of what an anchor is there to do: consolidate crowds of mobs to a single spot so that they can be bursted down by cleave DPS.

While true, the burst party healing rotation is meant to be an emergency heal, so knockbacks are nice when the engagement is going poorly. I usually find little problems with knocking back bosses due to Defiance. As for crowds of trash mobs, I usually use my DPS rotation to kill them quickly. As for stacking 12 stacks of might, I usually do that before an engagement to avoid stripping Defiance.

I find the sigil of battle to be a bit of an odd choice. I mean, the extra might stacks would be universally helpful, but I’d probably swap it out for a sigil of energy instead. That extra endurance boost can really help you in terms of survival, particularly against enemies for whom you need to avoid attacks rather than absorb them. For instance, the grawl fractal boss can be soloed with a sigil of energy and the proper skill rotation/timing, but without the sigil of energy it becomes more problematic since you can’t dodge as often and have to fully rely on your damage mitigation/healing.

Why not drop speedy kits and add kit refinement? I know its not nearly as good now as it was but that new vacuum bomb thing could substitute for binding blade.

Skitza.4069:

Why not drop speedy kits and add kit refinement? I know its not nearly as good now as it was but that new vacuum bomb thing could substitute for binding blade.

The glue drop can also be useful in PvE to keep mobs corralled where you want them, although it would annoyingly conflict with the bomb kit… stupid GCD.

Sigil of Energy is a reasonable substitute for Sigil of Battle for sure.

Kit Refinement is a terrible trait these days. “Vacuum bomb” has like a 360 range and has a pathetic pull. Also, it would conflict with the Elixir Gun’s Kit Refinement. Glue Bomb and Elixir F is sufficient to keep the enemy close to you.

I´ve tested your build yesterday for about two hours. It worked very well and it was really fun to see all these combos

Do you have any experience with World versus World yet?

I’ve played around with it in WvW as per all the requests. It’s really tanky and you can get back to full HP with the burst party healing rotation quite easily, but it does have issues with other players kiting it. Currently, I’m trying to incorporate the Grenade Kit in place of Elixir R or Elixir Gun (I haven’t decided yet).

I would stay with the Elixir Gun. Acid Bomb and Magnet Shield are sharing the same skill slot. So, even if you are choosing the Elixir Gun at your healing rotation by mistake (happens to me sometimes…), you are getting a blast finisher. But I rarely used Elixir R.

What about Throw Mine (2 blast finishers and easier timing, because the mines can be placed before starting the rotation) and/or Rocket Boots, instead of Elixir R and/or Elixir Gun?

I’ve been playing this build in WvW and I can see a lot of potential in very organized groups. The amount of burst party healing for players at an enemy’s gate, a fire field with 4 reliable blast finishers, and an overwhelming amount of condition damage is really attractive. Also, when you’re defending, swapping Bomb Kit for Grenade Kit is great, especially since we can trait Grenadier as well.

Thought I’d throw in that the Thumper turret has 3 blast finishers build into it, Although on a long cooldown I’ve used it somewhat effectively in dungeons, as it also can perma-cripple enemys

Very nice build and superb explanation. I can see it can be amazing in many dungeon settings and replacing some guardians. The area healing of your build via the combo fields is surely one of the best in the game. And the build still does decent damage with conditions.

I think the health is a bit too low for many WvWvW situations. Note: My WvWvW experience is mostly from EU tier #1 and tier #2, full of huge zergs. I am a PuG commander and I often run through enemy melee trains and I need to sometimes stand in enemy siege fire (superior ACs etc). I got less armor, but 22k health and I think my health pool is still bit too low, despite I have 4 dodges in a row with Elixir R.

In WvWvW a backstab can hit 10k damage (using full berserker ascended gear + scholar runes) against 3k armor, so the C&D+steal+backstab combo can take the entire health bar in 1.5 s.

Volcanis.4872:

Sigil of Energy is a reasonable substitute for Sigil of Battle for sure.

Kit Refinement is a terrible trait these days. “Vacuum bomb” has like a 360 range and has a pathetic pull. Also, it would conflict with the Elixir Gun’s Kit Refinement. Glue Bomb and Elixir F is sufficient to keep the enemy close to you.

Completely agree with you there, they did a terribad job with that one. Tiny loogie sized glue spots on EG cmon now and the lack of anything happening on the toolkit when used it just crazy i miss the instant free caltrops.

well this is the first focus build i have done, ive looked at countless other builds but nothing really looked that good until i saw this one. the build is fun, im not dieing, im saving other people and im causing more damage than i have before. also im a noob at this game so i didnt know all that much to start with but im really liking this build. i ran the “NULL” instance in the southsun cove (didnt beat him, could not get his shield down in burn phase) but i was healing my group doing a good amount of damage and kiting null around when we needed to, he stuck to me like glue. idk if that because i was doing a lot of damage and healing but he was following me like a lost puppy. without a doubt best build ive seen so far and im loving it.

also i could not get the apoth gear right away but i was able to get full settlers gear from the southsun cove event ( has more toughness than healing power) and it works great and got it for cheap too. i also whispered Volcanis and he helped me out and told me were to get the gear.

Out of my own amusement, I decided to level up a bombing engineer built around Elixir-Infused Bombs. (I’m not done. Just started a few days ago.) From my experience, I definitely agree that the combo potential of the shield makes it a MUST HAVE weapon for any bomber due to the sheer number of fields created. I’ll admit that I’ve been mostly working with the assumption that I should go cleric for gear, but this guide has been a real eye-opener. I’ll certainly try your build out, since I have not yet begun really dedicating my equipment, since I’m not max level yet.

While I see the value of Ingenuity and Speedy Kits, my biggest worry about investing 10 points in Tools is that the 10% bonus to Crit Damage is absolutely wasted without any Precision. You may want to consider putting those 10 points in Alchemy instead. I have been working with a similar build, but I was leveling towards 20/0/30/20/0. I understand that 15K health is nothing to laugh at, especially with heavy armor, constant healing and condition removal options, but I liked the extra HP cushioning that Alchemy gave. Plus, going at least 10 Alchemy will give you a 10% bonus to boon duration, while is nice for the might combos (fire + blast) and regeneration. In terms of Alchemy traits, I found Protection Injection to be an incredibly useful tool, since bombs naturally expose you to melee damage and CC range far more and the trait gives readily available (5 sec cd) damage reduction (3 sec) when CC’ed.

Thanks for the Guide! How do you feel about the Settlers Equip set? And I tested the build but instead of Apoth armor set I used Shaman, 3k more life. Might be a worthwhile tradeoff especially against other condition builds =)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcQQJAqelIqqb3zShF17IyoCdWoHSohpWfe8WplcB-jAyAIuASNAIRgZwioxWNLiGrWnIqWzg5VKiWNA-e

Thumper Turret does look attractive, but the blast finishers are 3 seconds apart, so it would only trigger once for Cleansing Burst, Fire Bomb, and Smoke Bomb.

I don’t have too much trouble in WvW with 15k Health. If you are worried about burst combos, remember you have Static Shield to stun them, Smoke Bomb to blind them, a smoke field to trigger stealth, Acid Bomb to retreat, and Toss Elixir R to rez yourself.

Yes, Settler’s gear is a cheap alternative to Apothecary’s as you familiarize yourself with this build.

I believe Speedy Kits is essential because it is your only source of Swiftness and I can’t play a profession with at least +25% movement speed.

I actually tried going this route when I first decided to go healing bombs. The big issue I had was that the build has a lot of Synergy with power. Not only does toughness become power with the trees you have, but healing power can as well. Making Clerics stats add up quite nicely. I also chose Grenadier as my grandmaster trait. I use grenades in fractals and WvW, and for me Grenades, and Bombs, are excellent power weapons. I basically WvW 80% of my time, so my opinion may be biased toward that.

With 0 in fire arms your losing a ton of condition damage. While putting points in explosions also naturally ups your power.

This is what I settled on. Using the pistol I sometimes wish I had condition damage. But really for me power just wins out.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcMQJAqel0p6ZHxyuFG+IyoCdWoHDmEqWfeIXpFEC-jkxAotASNAIHgZxioxqmJiqVNYA-w

Is this build still good.