I was getting frustrated being a condition and survival-type engineer in PvP. I’d run Nightmare Runes and Sigil of Smoldering along with Sigil of Ice in sPvP or Sigil of Tormenting in WvW. Condi specs are great in WvW since you can augment them with food and the fighting isn’t so dependent on holding location points. Just apply conditions, cc and survive, cloak and run when you are about to get handled. In PvP however, every fight I had against a decent guardian, necro or healing signet warrior would last several minutes on point, win or lose. That kind of fight isn’t good for your team unless you’re accruing point tics and distracting you’re opponent’s key players without dying. Ferocity burst specs end fights quickly.
I tried a power and ferocity build and, while rubber-banding and strange lag are a trademark of recent PvP, I think I found something that might just work with a lot more practice. The difference between pure condi-spec and power engi are night and day. You can actually instigate and end fights instead of countering and passively re-applying conditions, but power build is a lot less forgiving when you make bad decisions. Here’s the setup I’m working with: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpPrtbxWLseNCbBN6xcmtIqN+5GMgAA-TJBHwAA3fAwFAwwDAAZZAA
I switched to rifle because it seems to scale better with power. Though there’s no defense, having a high-damage knockback on call feels really nice. I sit in Flamethrower Kit for two reasons: 1) the #3 knockback stops a lot of openers that don’t have stability and 2) when I swap to rifle, Sigil of Intelligence procs. That sigil alone takes full advantage of all the trait investment into Tools and the Scholar Runes. I practiced the following kill combo on the PvP Golems:
Incendiary Ammo > Flame Blast > [stow kit] > Jump Shot (hit on the leap and land a bit behind target) > [Elixir Gun] > Big Ol’ Bomb > Acid Bomb. The reason I use Kit Refinement Trait is that when I swap to Elixir Gun for the Acid Bomb, the glue trail keeps the target immobilized while I jump backwards. (That’s the only good use I’ve found for Kit Refinement, but Magnetic Bomb could be good in tandem with Forceful Explosives.) However, you have to land a hand’s length behind the target with Jump Shot so that the glue trail hits them on the way back from Acid Bomb. Sigil of intelligence doesn’t use it’s crits up on glue trail, So either the Acid Bomb or the Big Ol’ Bomb will use the last guaranteed crit. The great part about Immobilization is that it prevents you from dodge rolling, so if the unblockable Acid Bomb doesn’t do the job, the Big Ol’ Bomb usually will.
This one-shots both the light armor and medium armor Golems, and the Heavy armor golem just needed a little more sustain to be finished off. It’s a long setup, but I’ve had great results in sPvP with all the power and immobilization. I’ve found myself in need of escape often if I fight in a 1v2 with a high-sustain opponent since I don’t have the armor or projectile defense I’m used to with a condi spec and rampager trinket.
But yeah now that I have power, some fights aren’t as scary. I defeated warriors, eles, condi-engineers, thieves, and rangers with a lot less APM and time than usual. I killed two on a point about three times last night on my own since they wanted to hold it without damage mitigation. My kiting background helped though since I have no armor. This build also tends to melt NPCs, pets and the keep doors at Legacy of Foefire. I didn’t know how good Jump Shot was at vulnerability stacking either. This is so great against minion builds, it’s kind of scary.
Up next, I’ll try to get away from the Kit Refinement and Elixir Gun since I like Elixir S in some maps. My idea of a perfectly balanced engineer for sPvP would include blocking, stealth, some burst potential, and some decent condition cleanse. I like Incendiary Powder, but I don’t like RNG for my kill combos. I’ll try any suggestions in hot join until I get comfortable. I might use Tool Kit instead of Flamethrower kit for the block, but I like FT’s mid-range options. This build isn’t very good against mesmers unless you have help. Moa morph isn’t really a problem with so much power unless you get dazed. I’ll also see if I can come up with a boon stripping build with Gadgeteer trait maybe.