PvE+WvW+Dungeon Engineer Request
To be perfectly honest, you won’t be doing high damage without running the glass cannon “crap” as you called it and there are many players that will tell you that zerker or bust in pve is the way to go (I don’t always agree to this philosophy for every player but it is in fact how I play). Grenade kit, bomb kit, healing turret, and eg is some of the best team support/damage you can offer with 30 in explosives (I often run 30/5/0/10/25 if I need permanent vigor for lots of dodges or 30/15/0/0/25 if I don’t and just want to increase my damage potential further), provided a couple of conditions are true for you.
1.) You learn how to utilize combo fields and all the blast finishers available and their timings. This is because you will be able to stack lots of might on the team and vulnerability on the target increasing party damage significantly or in your water field from the healing turret overcharge for lot’s of aoe healing.
2.) You can get comfortable still being in close to melee range even with grenade kit. This is for multiple reasons, primarily being if you are at max range and you have melee party members then you will be too spread out to coordinate buffs with your team and either you will miss their buffs or vice versa. Also the flight time on grenades at long range means you have a probability of missing a target that moves.
But the simple answer is, you basically want what is the equivalent of a unicorn, a mythical creature that does not exist. In order to deal high damage you have to give up survivability stats (at least in pve which does include dungeons, since pure condition builds are pretty meh there). I bolded the word stats because, you can be extremely survivable in pve, using the active mitigation tools at your disposal ie, blinds, blocks, stealth from the bombkit smoke field if blasted in, knowing how to position yourself, using terrain/line of sight, and most importantly dodges etc etc. For WvW you could still use a similar build as I posted, and simply change your gear to go ahead and add some survival stats, but there probably are better options to use if you are not comfortable with the class yet. I hope this post does not come across as criticism because it certainly is not my intention, it’s just that if you are new to the game or the class in general it really just takes time for it to all come together. Head to the mists and test some builds and test some build ideas and gear choices there and see what works for you, but most of all welcome to the class and happy engineering!.
(edited by ShadowPuppet.3746)
Interesting, I have never seriously pve’d, but after taking off for 2 months and coming back I’m really looking for a good pve build, and you say glass cannon is the way to go? What traits, runes and sigils would you suggest for going full zerker?
Zaragoz[SS] – 80 engineer
If you love Flamethrower then you need to take a look at this, and wait for Phineas Poe to chime in.
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/72009-a-comprehensive-look-at-the-flamethrower-and-elixir-gun/
The build can be modified for WvW/PvP by taking 10 pts from Tools (dropping Speedy Gadgets) and putting them into Inventions to grab Cloaking Device/Protective Shield. Also you could get a little tankier by swaping zerk armor for Soldier/Knights.
In PvP/WvW just watch out for retaliation.
This is the build I tend to use
feel free to drop the 10 points from firearm for 5 points in it and put those 5 points to better use elsewhere. The survivability in this build is gearsheild, static shield and your dodges cause it has no toughness other than the base amount. Also skill 9 does a lot of switching from elixir s, rocketboots, elixir u, bomb kit, elixir gun, throw mine, elixir r, or thumper turret(for guaranteed stability and another blast finisher off your water fields.
Karl Marx: “Go away! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough!”
0/30/0/10/30 Rifle/FT with Static Discharge traited does pretty good damage and gives you a bit more survivability. Use Rifle Turret and Toolkit along side it for higher damage toolbelt/SD abilities. I was surprised with its damage but you have to hit all your damaging cooldowns. Rifle 3&5, TK3 and your toolbelt abilities to achieve good dps. Mix Knights, Zerker and Soldiers to your preference.
GL
Blood~
I run the same trait build as Bloodgruve, but I do pistol/x with piercing bullets and modified ammo. I also have Speedy Kits instead of Static Discharge and Invograting speed in alchemy, which means I can have a constant vigor buff if I can keep up on the kit swap, combined with Adrenal Implant means I pretty much always have the endurance to dodge, giving me the freedom to stack more zerker in both PvE and Wuv than I would otherwise feel comfortable with.
Foe faller just to let you know vigor and adrenal implant don’t stack sadly
Karl Marx: “Go away! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough!”
0/30/0/10/30 Rifle/FT with Static Discharge traited does pretty good damage and gives you a bit more survivability. Use Rifle Turret and Toolkit along side it for higher damage toolbelt/SD abilities. I was surprised with its damage but you have to hit all your damaging cooldowns. Rifle 3&5, TK3 and your toolbelt abilities to achieve good dps. Mix Knights, Zerker and Soldiers to your preference.
GL
Blood~
What are the traits that you use in firearms, reason I ask is if you could potentially drop 10 points from there to put in elixirs to get either deadly mixture or protection injection or self regulating defenses. I am of the opinion that the range increase on rifle is not always needed since it really only helps you with the auto and slightly with jumpshot distance… which is best used up close anyway to get both jump and land and net shot gets dodge a lot if you try to use it at max distance if the player is not half braindead and paying attention. You would of course lose out on the 5% damage against bleeding targets, but the increase in survivability against the knockdown fest can be well worth it. Largely personal preference I guess, and this is of course from a WvW perspective.