Guild Wars 2

Ran this in pug play and tPvP play today for good effects. It’s nothing more than the typical power rifle build, except adding in supplemental fire damage and working in static discharge. The build has very little synergy, and very few things stack together, but I’m starting to find for sPvP that we perform better when we don’t focus on just one thing.

Anyway, this came about because I didn’t like how long it took to bring down players in our standard condition builds, or how flimsy we were. I liked how survivable we were in our power rifle builds, able to take down thieves pretty easily, but felt we didn’t have enough damage to take down any bunker with straightforward damage.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcMM9cz0mTMLMmvMCM0G0xGosmkbMm8khA7070m7kG570V7owY8ofy

You may have to copy and paste, not sure.

Anyway the idea of this is to run as you would a typical power rifle build, but swapping to your fire damage and keeping the condition pressure up at all times, and flamethrower kit + rifle gives us two knockbacks which is also quite nice.

A big trick to this build also is to jump into melee range and pop your medikit and then flamethrower… you will lay down two back to back AoE fire attacks with the traits and Runes used.

The static discharges come pretty frequently and are a good way to spike your damage. This is a very good pressure spec and the damage is surprisingly high considering the survivability of the spec with soldier runes and amulet.

Anyway, haven’t seen it before, and for every build I make like this, I usually run through about ten that fail, but this one did well 1v1 and offered more AoE than we normally provide through the AoE fires and bouncing static discharge together, so I thought it deserved a spot, and maybe one or two people will pick it up and like it.

Best of luck.

A little of this build in action in sPvP play. I don’t have a tPvP team at the moment, so I get that these are not the best of players I’m against at all times, and that I messed up a bit myself (most notably overcharge shot to the bird instead of the ranger at one point for lols) but it’s a good indicator of how the build works. Some things to note:

1) Haste heals at 20% life (why not 25%? so hard to time 20% in comparison but I do it a couple of times in the video)
2) Double AoE fire blasts + AoE chill at the same time
3) Static Discharge for extra “oomph”
4) Survivability

Anyway, enjoy. Sorry for the poor resolution, my computer is made of potato.

Not enough damage to take down someone imo.

You posted that in less time than you had to actually watch the video, btw.

aydenunited.5729:

You posted that in less time than you had to actually watch the video, btw.

I did watch the video, just after I posted my opinion. And I don’t need to watch a video to know because I play engi. Engi base damage is horrible.

I agree, it’s pretty mediocre.

Anyway, back on the topic of the build… so far I’ve adjusted it several ways, and I’ve discovered the main source of the burn damage actually comes from 4 moves… Rocket Kick, Incendiary Ammo, and the two AoE burns you get using Runes of Balthazar and Kit Refinement FT move. Testing it on the dummies, the two back to back burns + Rocket Kick gives you roughly 20 seconds of burn, not to mention some Frost damage from the chill Sigil. It’s a good start to a fight, especially considering 15 seconds of those burns are AoE. Good for people backed on a node.

I’ve also adjusted base power up instead of taking anything in Firearms against my usual preference, and since the actual FT damage is soft, I took out the trait for 15% more damage, FT in this build, oddly, becomes more of a CC tool and combo field generator than actual damage machine.

aydenunited.5729:

I agree, it’s pretty mediocre.

Anyway, back on the topic of the build… so far I’ve adjusted it several ways, and I’ve discovered the main source of the burn damage actually comes from 4 moves… Rocket Kick, Incendiary Ammo, and the two AoE burns you get using Runes of Balthazar and Kit Refinement FT move. Testing it on the dummies, the two back to back burns + Rocket Kick gives you roughly 20 seconds of burn, not to mention some Frost damage from the chill Sigil. It’s a good start to a fight, especially considering 15 seconds of those burns are AoE. Good for people backed on a node.

I’ve also adjusted base power up instead of taking anything in Firearms against my usual preference, and since the actual FT damage is soft, I took out the trait for 15% more damage, FT in this build, oddly, becomes more of a CC tool and combo field generator than actual damage machine.

That is not odd at all. Flamethrower is never an actual damage machine.

The 20 points in Explosives completely changed the damage output of this build, and it’s now quite impressive, considering you take the single target power rifle and add massive AoE damage to it… here’s how it’s been working.

I wanted more CC… and rifle turret was myeh, just a static discharge is all. So I wanted to run with Battering Ram, and did, but the CD made me want something else, and I didn’t want to trait to reduce the CD on it…

So I added in Toolkit, and wow… the difference is amazing.

The way it works is this… Kit Refinement + Balthazaar runes means that while you’re switching your kits quickly, you are laying down MASSIVE close ranged AoE. You’re shooting for a net shot to CC them in place, then jump in with Jump Shot… while you’re in the air even, you can swap to Medikit, which in this build gives you 3 stacks of might and AoE fire, then immediately swap to FT kit, which will apply an AoE chill effect + AoE fire, dodge back (which places a bomb) and then swap to your Toolkit (which places caltrops on the ground).

For Engies having trouble with thieves, try this build out. It is a thief slayer.

Now granted, I realize this board isn’t very open to new ideas past what tournament players have said about the current meta… people tend to repeat what they’ve already heard… and I’ve not got a tournament team at the moment so though I’m now confident there’s a place for this build, I won’t go so far as to say I have any proof of that. But I will say it’s easily the best 1v1 spec I’ve had so far for an Engie, and any class without condition removal or a great ability to run away stands little chance once you get the coordination down.

Anyway, I know this falls on mostly deaf ears, er, blind eyes, but I’m very confident and would love to test it against some good players sometime, just to further see. Pub-stomping aside, I realize limitations and am realistic, I’m just stoked to have finally found a build that “feels” OP against the new players.

Happy hunting guys, and don’t fret so much, good buffs for us are just around the corner.

Can u. Post ur retuned build plz , would like to try it.

I am curious as well.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcMM9cz0mTMLMmvMCMG9MxGmaombMm8khV7070m7kG570V7owY8ofy

Is the current build I’m running. Remember to properly play it (or if you will, the tactic that is crushing young thieves), you are trying to provide AoE damage at close range, so the staple way to start/finish a fight is with a Jump Shot into melee range (usually net them first) then swap to medikit in while you are “hovering” in the air, then swap to flamethrower kit upon land, dodge away and swap to Toolkit to defend if necessary.

Watch for condition their removal. If they removed your fire, cripple, bleed, or chill effect granted, wait 10 seconds and do the same thing again.

And also remember, even if you get loaded up with conditions yourself, at 25% you hit the reset button with a shrink and immune to conditions, be ready to either unload everything after this, or seek to get out of LoS and heal up. At 20% life you will have haste for 5 seconds, this is basically an insta-heal if you time it right.

Good luck!

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcMM9cz0mCTLMmvMCMG9MxGmaombMm8khV7070m7kG570V7owY8ofy

Edited post, forgot to update skill bar. Use this one instead.

I tried your build tonight Ayden. I have to say I hadn’t had so much fun with my engineer in a long time It’s very nice to play. I kept pressing all the wrong buttons all the time of course but I slowly got the hang of it. Very nice one!
I changed the Soldier’s amulet for the Carrion one in my last games to check how it goes and if you play a bit more correctly avoiding stuff the additional condition damage is quite handy getting people down trading for that toughness.
Thanks for sharing!

Glad you’re having fun with it, it’s been very kind to me so far, it doesn’t feel like such a chore to accomplish good damage and you’re not squishy, damage is easily delivered, and on top of the condition damage, might stacking, and power rifle, you’re firing off a few static discharges here and there as well. I could see this build working well and becoming more mobile by swapping Static Discharge for Speedy Kits and taking an Elixer R as well.

I might give it a shot with a Carrion Amu and see if I like the damage results vs. the lack of toughness.

Yeah at times I felt static discharge is a bit disjointed to the whole build feeling. I’m not a huge fun of the automatic elixir S at 25% health either in a medikit build because we lose access to our heal while tiny (something which doesn’t happen with elixir H and the healing turret).
I have in mind to try 3 different variations:
- Replace Static Discharge with Speedy Kits and Self-regulating Defenses with Invigorating Speed. As soon as I jump on someone I’ll be getting swiftness and vigor as well for better positioning and more dodges.
- Keep discharge and replace Self-regulating Defenses with Blood injection for some more condition damage.
- Keep discharge and replace Self-regulating Defenses with Backpack regenerator as we spend quite a bit of time in kits.

It will be fun

I’m having a TON of fun with this build! So many possibilities. Thanks for sharing.

Is it just me, or medkit+soldier’s amulet+20 points in tools= grat survivability?

Seems like the high vitality level is more than enough to let us heal multiple times and survive almost everything (I died to a thief, but that’s my fault: playing too much hotjoin, I forgot they used haste).

Could that be or did I just fight weak opponents?