Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

I’ve been going throughout several builds and sets of gear over the last week trying to make the best dungeon build I can, but I have some questions.

First: Is condition damage actually useless in PvE? Is it just inferior to power?

Second: Whats the view on defensive stats (e.g. Toughness and Vitality)? Are they actually useful or is it better to simply pump up damage stats and survive on skill alone?

Thanks in advance.

Depending on what you can handle. I think toughness and vitality starts to get really important when you start to go higher fractals. Dps is great but it won’t matter if you can’t survive to dish it out.
Condition damage build are very viable with engineer since we can do a lot of conditions however there’s been a lot of debate around it. On the plus side you can deal damage over time and not necessarily hit them constantly to do damage however there is a max cap on 25 stacks on any conditions. All professions deal conditions as well so it not so rare to see at least a stack of 25 of one conditions. It really depends who is on your team, if its a necro, then it’s most likely conditions build and that can affect your dps.
Personally I think engineer can do a hybrid of both power and condition damage.

I think the Elixer Gun out-plays the pistols for conditions. I would use a rifle, and slot the EG.

Buy Shoyoko makes a very good point. In dungeons (or where ever there are Bosses) keep an eye on what conditions are being stacked by the group and switch as needed.

As to PvE defensive stats, I wouldn’t overthink it. I’ve run many different builds, and there are ways to make all of them work. I would, however, recommend focusing on one, and not spread yourself too thin over several.