Guild Wars 2

Hi.
I just hit 80 on my Engi at last (was 54 six months ago, then took a long break, came back and did Clockwork Chaos + some dungeons for levelling). Now that I’ve finalized my build, I just wanted some feedback on it, to see whether or not it’s really as good as I feel it to be, and if I can make it better-:

Purpose: PvE, Dungeons, Fractals, maybe some WvW
Skills:
- Healing Turret: because it’s just so useful as a fire-and-forget heal, and the water field is good when burst healing is needed
- Flamethrower: just having way too much fun ever since I chose this over Grenades.
- Elixir Gun: really really versatile, and shortest CD blast finisher skill I have.
- Choice of Elixir B/Elixir C/Goggles/Elixir S/Rocket Boots: this is situation dependent. Elixir C for condition-heavy areas, Goggles if I’m the vuln-stacker, Elixir S for Stability, Rocket Boots if I REALLY need another blast finisher, and Elixir B just cause it’s so kitten good.

Traits: 0/30/0/20/20
-Fireforged Trigger, obviously.
-Juggernaut, again obvious.
-Precise Sights, with FT’s high attack speed, vuln stacking is pretty good.

-Invigorating Speed: with Speedy Kits, I have near perma-Swiftness and Vigor. Extremely helpful, since I’m still learning and not really that good at the game.
-Deadly Mixture

-Speedy Kits
-Kit Refinement: this is open to change, but nothing else REALLY holds my attention much. Maybe Static Discharge or Leg Mods? Unsure

Equipment: I’m still kind of poor, and was wearing a mismatch of equips till 80. I’ve just bought a full set of Knight’s armor (Rare Tier), and equipped it with Superior Runes of Strength. Soon, I will be flipping Rings, Accessories, Amulet, and Back brace to Berserker stats and berserker enchantments. The reasoning is, the additional survivability from Knight’s helps me to survive my mistakes, as compared to the crazy squishiness from Berserker gear. For offensive stats, the rings/acc/bracelet/back should hopefully help me cover it up.

Weapon: Berserker stat Rare tier rifle, with Superior Sigil of Strength.

Boons:
Perma-Swiftness
Perma-Vigor
15-20 stacks of Might are easily maintained.
Fury with Elixir B
Retaliation with Elixir B, or blast combo of Super Elixir’s light field.

Conditions:
Bleed & Vuln are easily applied with Crits. Burns are also prominent.
Poison, with Fumigate, and Weakness with Tranquilizer Dart are also easy to maintain.

This build works for me like a bruiser. Fairly tanky, pretty good damage (which skyrockets to pretty huge damage when vs multiple opponents), and excellent support. I frequently stack Might and Area Retaliation on allies, along with the constant healing from Super Elixir and Healing Turret. When required, burst heal is also available.
So far I’ve been having a lot of fun with this build. I used to use Grenades, but eventually got bored of them, and Bombs are too tedious. Pistol/Shield is a really boring combo as well, personally. I derived this build mostly from Phineas Poe’s guide (big thank you to him), just changed some traits, equips and skills around. Please tell me what you think of it.

Bump. What, it can’t be perfect =/

Once you’ve made your way to full berserker exotics/ascended you’re good to go.

The build itself looks great in my opinion, you make a lot of solid choices.

If I were to change anything I’d just swap Elixir Gun to Elixir C since you’ll be running FT most of the time and still get the cleanse with C.

A few things.
1) Healing turret is generally the best heal available, but not as a fire-and-forget heal. Try double-tapping your heal button, then immediately detonating it with f1. You’ll get a much larger heal, on a 20s cooldown.

2) I personally would’t go 0/30/0/20/20. First, I’d drop 10 points in tools; you yourself stated that you don’t find it that wonderful. I would also personally drop 10 from firearms, but every person has their own taste. There are 2 main traits that you could really use that you don’t have. Which one or ones you pick is entirely up to you. First, the adept (10 point) explosives trait that provides burning on crit is very useful with the flamethrower. Second, the grandmaster (30 point) trait in alchemy that gives might on elixir use is extremely useful. If you end up taking it, I would also encourage that you change your healing skill to elixir H, which will sacrifice some healing effectiveness for might stacking. If you can survive without vigor, I would also take the 20% reduced cooldown on elixirs instead.

3) When you switch over to zerker, don’t bother buying rares; get exotics even if it takes you a little longer. BiS gear is much cheaper/easier obtained in this game than any other I’ve played. You’ll only end up getting rid of your rares anyways.

4) If I recall correctly, Knights + Zerker is an effective combo if you want those defensive stats. However, once you get the hang of it, consider moving closer to full zerker. Most big hits can be dodged, which means that defensive stats aren’t worth as much. If you can survive in full zerker, you’ll do a lot more damage.

Otherwise, your build seems good. The rule of thumb for engineers is that if you can rationally explain your build, and it is effective for you, then it’s a fine build. It sounds like you thought it through, so if you feel like its effective for you then you’re set to go already.

Thanks for the response!

I considered the Might on Elixir initially, but as I got closer to 80 and once I got the Sigil of Strength, I started noticing how ridiculously easy it got for me to stack Might on myself. The burning on crit is VERY tempting though, considering Flame Jet’s +10% vs burning foes. I’ll have to try to work something out there.
I’m just afraid of the squishiness from pure zerker, though I realize the damage gap is big. I just don’t wanna get insta-gibbed =/

Lose 5 points in Firearms and put 5 more points in Alchemy or Tools; even if we assume 5 attacks per second and 60% crit chance you’ll only inflict 4.5 stacks of Vulnerability with Precise Sights.

As Sylentir said, you definitely want to drop 10 points from Tools and Firearms and put it into Explosives and probably Alchemy. Burn on crit is amazing, and pretty much results in 100% burn uptime with Incendiary ammo and flamethrower usage. Another 10 in Alchemy allows you the HGH option, plus you can keep 409 if you ever need another major in the tree. (Invigorating Speed, Fast Acting/Potent, Self Regulating etc.)

Heal turret is definitely your go to skill for group play, due to the double water field. I still really like Medkit though myself and use it in solo play sometimes, particularly if I’m using a on heal rune/sigil.

Personally I use Cavalier accessories with Zerk armor.

Keep Elixir Gun if your group needs more condition cleansing and some healing. (Don’t underestimate Fumigate, it’s an incredible condition cleanse on a 9 1/2 sec cd) If you’re going for might stacking via HGH, R or even C aren’t a bad idea instead, along with switching to H for your heal.

One of the fun things about using a power heavy build is that Toolkit will always be a fun, hard hitting option to play around with. And who doesn’t like smacking things upside the head with a prybar that crits for 4k?