Guild Wars 2

Hey,

I try to find an open world leveling build for my old (but still level 20) Engineer. Maybe you’re able and willing to help me in this regard. There are a lot of things I don’t like about the Engi, and a few things I like.

I don’t like:
- shield
- stationary things like turrets (I want to be mobile)
- grenade kit
- kit swapping

I like:
- dual pistols
- flamethrower

Everything else falls in between.

Ideally my build should have dual pistols and no kits at all but that doesn’t seem viable. A pure flamethrower build would be ok, too. Maybe you have an idea of a build which doesn’t use anything mentioned in the list of things I don’t like and is still fairly efficient.

Thanks in advance.

P/P will kill stuff slowly, conditions in PvE are pretty slow. If you don’t like kit swapping though you prolly don’t wanna run an engineer, you lose so much w/o them. This may change with mobile turrets n what not in the future.

You could try FT with Static Discharge trait and low cd toolbelt skills like Rifle Turret, Tool Kit, Personal Battering Ram, Rocket Boots and similar.

Bomb Kit is another option, you can kite mobs almost perfectly with bombs. Take Speedy Kits trait n just run around in a circle and the mobs will run right over exploding bombs.

If you really wanna run conditions with P/P then Elixir Gun may be an option too. Acid Bomb does a ton of damage, couple it with Net Turret and Rocket Boots for a root and more burning.

Whatever you do though don’t neglect Power on your gear.

If you wanna play Engi you’ll want to learn to love kits. To master Engi you’ll need to be swapping kits and weapons constantly to take advantage of the almost 0 ‘swap’ cd that kits give you, it allows you to hit your highest damaging abilities almost all the time.

if you dont like kit swapping you should either practice it or reroll. grenade kit is in the meta for WvW, PvE, and PvP so ya’ cant neglect that either.

Thanks. I’ll try your recommendations regarding FT, Bomb Kit and Elixir Gun. How would these builds ideally look like?

Bloodgruve.6038:

If you wanna play Engi you’ll want to learn to love kits. To master Engi you’ll need to be swapping kits and weapons constantly to take advantage of the almost 0 ‘swap’ cd that kits give you, it allows you to hit your highest damaging abilities almost all the time.

I just try to hit 80 to be able to get the new specialization because these mobile flying thingies and a big hammer are exactly my cup of tea. I’m not interested in playing dungeons, fractals, whatsoever before HoT/with the standard Engi.

choovanski.5462:

if you dont like kit swapping you should either practice it or reroll. grenade kit is in the meta for WvW, PvE, and PvP so ya’ cant neglect that either.

QFT

That’s kind of like playing GW2 and saying you don’t like to dodge.

If you just want to avoid grenades though, your options are either bomb kit, flamethrower or a condition pistol build. Condi builds suck in mass PvE because of the caps, but if you just want to solo things it can work wonders. The bomb and flamethrower builds are perfectly fine for most PvE but they will get you killed a little more than grenades so you should probably go celestial/soldiers+zerker instead of pure zerker.

Oh, and if you want to try some weird melee engineer with toolkit or elixir gun condi build, keep us posted on how that goes (though I am guessing very poorly).

Edit:

For flamethrower I tend to run 6/6/0/0/2 as a hybrid grenade/ft build for PvE tagging and boss trains. You want speedy kits for PvE, there is pretty much no discussion there. For killing bosses you want the extra 2% damage per condition on the enemy and juggernaut is in the same line. I guess you can skip the grenadier, likely want to take invigorating swiftness instead.

Alternatively there are some turret builds, though they are almost certainly sub optimal for anything except solo PvE. Likely want to go deep in the turret line but I am not sure how else to build that. Tbh I kinda want to look it up now and try that out myself.

For pistols condi build just look up a PvP rabid meta build.

Guys, I don’t care about meta, most powerful builds or how my playstyle would suck compared to that. I just want to have fun leveling something different (and be somewhat efficient at that), something I like to play, instead of playing something I can’t stand. That has nothing to do with learning. I know how to use multiple kits efficient since I played an Engi on my girldfriend’s account. And I hate it even though I “learned” it. If you came here just to say I should reroll or play meta and don’t want to help me in that regard please stop posting. Thank you.

if you wanna be efficient, go with the meta… and the meta is bombs + power gear + speedy kits + rocket boots/eg for levelling. pistols are “viable” cuz everything is viable, but rifle is better. flamethrower is viable cuz everything is viable, but bombs will be better.

if you come in here saying i wanna be efficient, we will tell you go meta, because thats how this works.

I run around camping FT in open world PvE sometimes just for the fun of it, what’s better then a big flame thrower??

DPS wise, FT isn’t terrible if you couple it with Rifle 3n5 on cooldown and Static Discharge. It throws a good fire field for might stacks. It doesn’t supply a lot of Vulnerability like Grenades though. I wouldn’t mind running dungeons with an FT engi as long as I saw him hitting Rifle and Static Discharge a lot. You’d prolly get kicked from ‘meta’ groups though.

For open world PvE though, just play anything that is fun. Options are what I love about GW2. I hope they do something with Conditions in PvE, I’m so disappointed in how bad they are currently.

Try a 0/6/0/4/4 FT build. Static Discharge is important to kill things quickly in open world.

P/P could prolly be fine with Static Discharge too if you don’t gear full condition.

insanemaniac.2456:

if you come in here saying i wanna be efficient, we will tell you go meta, because thats how this works.

I said I want to use that stuff I mentioned in the first post and be somewhat efficient with that. Instead of arguing the way you did you could read what I wrote. Thank you.

Bloodgruve.6038:

I run around camping FT in open world PvE sometimes just for the fun of it, what’s better then a big flame thrower??

DPS wise, FT isn’t terrible if you couple it with Rifle 3n5 and Static Discharge. It throws a good fire field for might stacks. It doesn’t supply a lot of Vulnerability like Grenades though. I wouldn’t mind running dungeons with an FT engi as long as I saw him hitting Rifle and Static Discharge a lot. You’d prolly get kicked from ‘meta’ groups though.

For open world PvE though, just play anything that is fun. Options are what I love about GW2. I hope they do something with Conditions in PvE, I’m so disappointed in how bad they are currently.

Try a 0/6/0/4/4 FT build. Static Discharge is important to kill things quickly in open world.

Thank you very much. This looks interesting and I’ll definitely try it.

Orcinus Orca.8627:

insanemaniac.2456:

if you come in here saying i wanna be efficient, we will tell you go meta, because thats how this works.

I said I want to use that stuff I mentioned in the first post and be somewhat efficient with that. Instead of arguing the way you did you could read what I wrote. Thank you.

you can use the stuff you mentioned and still be meta, there is a good bit of wiggle room. stop being so dismissive of people advising you.

Hey, I love double pistols on my engi too, even though I limit myself to only playing it while I solo easy facerolling contents. It is a ton of fun seeing all the little condi damage number while not totally gimping my straight damage – a reason why I don’t like Rabid gear at all.

I’m using this old school HGH build with nades. As you can see, Aristocracy rune is really sweet for this condi build. It synergies well with our might stacking through HGH and add considerable amount of condition damage. Here is a short footage of my engi doing Battle of Claw Island: http://youtu.be/XYPmEWBn1r0

I love nades as it is our only good range option. For easy and zergy contents, you can swap to Flamethrower, like this variant

This is the build that i’m currently using in PVE/WvW. Since that I am lazy, and i don’t want to change my gear…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpkr1Ux+KseNSexM6rSqIQHwCD8p6B-TxBFwACeAAIV+hS9HS7PkRHAgLAwVlgkBQfLA-e

PvE

if you want more mobility use rocket boots, instead of Elxir S. Also, Elxr Gun its a must for condi removal, so use t, instead of tool kit.

It’s not effective as the meta, but it’s funny and easy to play. I understand that nades can be annoing to use, ths is why i run this build.

WvW

NO! Just don’t go with this build in wvw or you are gonna get one-shotted!
XD
Just kidding! btw, it’s really glassy, but if you master well the class and you don’t get raged if ppl kll you easily, feel free to mess around with it. I ‘m really enjoying it, expecally if you roam in a group of ppl, and there’s a least one tank.

Enjoy

insanemaniac.2456:

you can use the stuff you mentioned and still be meta, there is a good bit of wiggle room. stop being so dismissive of people advising you.

I have to apologize, I’ve read “grenades” in your post which is a no-go for me and the reason I became annoyed of your post. But bombs sound OK. Sorry again.

So, with the bomb kit I can stay on that kit, plant bombs, rush around, kite mobs and feel good, right? How about the traits? This as a base frame? http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpvrtbxPLseJSbhMqwfdRAA
Where to go from there on?
And should I just spam skill #1 and sometimes #3 and #4 for defense or which weapon kit skills are useful, too?

For PVE I run a build that uses FT, Nades and Elixir Gun/Elixir B.

But I usually stay on FT (juggernaut ftw) and only use nades for the chill and the toolbelt skill, so you can change it.

For example: you can run FT, Elixir Gun and Elixir B.
You stay on FT most of the time, use Elixir Gun and Pistol for tricks and scapes, and Elixir B for spiking damage.
When available, take Fireforged Trigger, Juggernaut, Fast Acting Elixirs and Deadly Mixture, as those traits will improve and sinergyze FT, Elixir Gun and Elixirs. Firearms Line will improve your condition damage while Alchemy will aid you to sustain the Might from Juggernaut longer.
Of course, things will change as you gain levels, but if youreally like this kind of play (I do) you could try Celestial gear, that will give you a somewath balanced boon to Power, Condi Damage and survivality.

If you wanna camp FT, just run FT with HGH and Bunker Down. Really doesn’t matter which weapon you use since in all likelihood you’ll rarely be leaving FT. Build doesn’t flesh out until late game, so may not be best for leveling.

Give it a shot.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlcTpArVXxWLseNSdBNqoA6AUgOL6aEjeA

Orcinus Orca.8627:

insanemaniac.2456:

you can use the stuff you mentioned and still be meta, there is a good bit of wiggle room. stop being so dismissive of people advising you.

I have to apologize, I’ve read “grenades” in your post which is a no-go for me and the reason I became annoyed of your post. But bombs sound OK. Sorry again.

So, with the bomb kit I can stay on that kit, plant bombs, rush around, kite mobs and feel good, right? How about the traits? This as a base frame? http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpvrtbxPLseJSbhMqwfdRAA
Where to go from there on?
And should I just spam skill #1 and sometimes #3 and #4 for defense or which weapon kit skills are useful, too?

you got it
get speedy kits first, then improve your bomb kit, then improve your rifle/pistols with firearms since its another damage line. you dont really need both rocket boots and eg, 1 of the 2 is prolly enough mobility and you can put something else you feel like playing around with in the spot (hint hint ft lol). if you stick with eg, the thing to use is #4. then swap out of it. for bombs, use your blasts on 2, use 4 to make trash miss, and spam 1. 5 is situational, 3 is for condi builds and you can mostly ignore those.

if you go with rifle, i think youll find a 3/5 combo will be enough to wreck most mobs instantly. if you go pistols, make sure to get coated bullets later on.

(i actually never said grenades in my posts in here. nor did i infer it. grenades are crap while levelling. you cant use grenadier till 80. only use them if you want to get a feel for them.)

A fun PVE build is to focus on Confusion and Blind.

If you run Pistol/Bomb/Tool Kit you can trigger Confusion 3 ways. On PVE NPC which are fairly predictible, it’s easy to stack confusion. With Acid Coating and Go for the Eyes trait, along with Pistol 3 and Bomb 4 (and Flame Thrower 5) you can proc Blindness almost at will. Blindness will limit damage that you take.

It’s fun to watch a blind NPC confuse himself to death while missing you.

insanemaniac.2456:

i actually never said grenades in my posts in here. nor did i infer it. grenades are crap while levelling. you cant use grenadier till 80. only use them if you want to get a feel for them.)

What I meant is: “I thought you’ve read”. Before your post I saw the words “grenade” and “meta” more than I prefer even though I stated I don’t want to play with grenades. Your post started with “meta” in the first sentence and that’s probably the reason why my brain overcharged and interpreted the rest of your post instead of reading it.

Thanks for your extensive explanation regarding the build.

Here’s a solo pve flamethrower/SD build I quickly made up.
Tweak it around however you like.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQJAqalUUpmqNexWLseNSdBNyvEFQHgAWARmwYA-TBSBwAUegAFV+Rb/hIKBvp+DK9EIM/B4EBIIgxB-e
It’s far from the best, but it’s all I could come up with that had duel pistols and flamethrower.

P/P (and conditions in general) is actually a very good idea for leveling if you don’t mind killing stuff (relatively) slowly. The reason for it being that condition damage scales with your level and not with your weapon strength (unlike power). So even if your weapon is a bit outdated (it happens to the best of us), you’ll still deal good damage. I run a lot of different builds on a lot of different professions, but in WvW, the spec that takes the less time to cap a fully upgraded camp is by far my condi engineer, that’s why I said it was “relatively” slow.

I would also use Elixir Gun. You have to wait till level 40 to have speedy kits (which is the ABSOLUTE first trait you have to unlock), and if you practice your about face -> EG4 -> about face (or turning your camera during the leap), you’ll move a bit faster, which is always nice. In addition, the AA is the strongest condition AA the engineer has, and EG5 can rely save your live sometimes.

Finally, use bomb kit. It’s fun, it deals good condi AND power damage, it’s AoE, and it has some defensive capabilities (Big Old Bomb into bomb4 will grant you stealth). The third utility is up to you.

edit: don’t use grenades. Grenades are useless without the “Grenadier” Grand Master trait, that you can’t unlock till level 60 or so.

Sorel.4870:

I run a lot of different builds on a lot of different professions, but in WvW, the spec that takes the less time to cap a fully upgraded camp is by far my condi engineer, that’s why I said it was “relatively” slow.

kinda interesting aside…
for me, full pve zerk and knight/zerk wvw mix end up being a wash at regular camps, both better than condi. knight/zerk and condi are about the same at fully upgraded, but condi is in exotics and doesnt have wvw infusions, while pve zerk cant do them because all my infusions are AR (im not sure i could do it even with wvw infusions though). i dont multiclass so idk about comparisons with other classes.

OP is level 20. grenades are op with the now level 80 grandmaster unlock, grenadier.
They are NOT so, when you only throw 2 grenades, and they do not even put up stacks of vul.

LEVELING, pistols are fine. As condition damage automatically scales with level, while weapon damage does not. (actually, they gated stat gains too didn’t they?)
still relatively true, as the trinity of stats does not multiple into each other as much at lower stat levels. Zerker trinity relies on 70% crit chance, and 200%+ crit damage. something you won’t have at level 20.

Level what you want. be aware pistols are bad at 80 though.

insanemaniac.2456:

Sorel.4870:

I run a lot of different builds on a lot of different professions, but in WvW, the spec that takes the less time to cap a fully upgraded camp is by far my condi engineer, that’s why I said it was “relatively” slow.

kinda interesting aside…
for me, full pve zerk and knight/zerk wvw mix end up being a wash at regular camps, both better than condi. knight/zerk and condi are about the same at fully upgraded, but condi is in exotics and doesnt have wvw infusions, while pve zerk cant do them because all my infusions are AR (im not sure i could do it even with wvw infusions though). i dont multiclass so idk about comparisons with other classes.

You’re probably right. The truth is I’ve never tried taking a camp with a zerker bomb engineer, since I only play bombs on my condi and celestial builds.

On other professions (namely warrior, thief, mesmer and ranger), I can’t get it done so fast, because their AoE pressure is worse, and when they are in zerker set they take a bit more of survival management. But I can certainly imagine that you can do much better on a staff elementalist, for example.

I’ve tried all the builds suggested in here and I like Sagramor’s one the best. I play it with dual pistols and it’s a lot of fun. Thanks for all the advice.

Sagramor.7395:

If you wanna camp FT, just run FT with HGH and Bunker Down. Really doesn’t matter which weapon you use since in all likelihood you’ll rarely be leaving FT. Build doesn’t flesh out until late game, so may not be best for leveling.

Give it a shot.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlcTpArVXxWLseNSdBNqoA6AUgOL6aEjeA