Guild Wars 2

So I’m trying to make a Grenade build but I’m having a difficult time and I could use some input.

What’s a best weapon to use overall with the Grenades, rifle or pistols?

Also, what’s the best way to put my traits and what stats would be good for gear.

Thanks!

In my honest and most humble of opinions it is going to depend on what you are missing the most in your build as a whole. Are grenades going to be your main weapon? are you using them to keep up and apply conditions? Are you simply using them as added soft cc and damage?

If you need more condition appliers go pistol/pistol
If you need more crowd control/snares/etc. go rifle
If you need a bit of both go pistol/shield.

It is hard to tell you that there is a particular one thing you should do to be good. It all depends on your play style with the engineer as this profession can be good in many different builds. Think about what you like to play most and fill in the skills and abilities with selections that fill in the weak spots. You will always be better off going for a balanced build built from trial and error than you will just pulling one off some website and trying to adapt to fit it’s purpose in my opinion.

Good luck and have fun.

I would prefer CD appliers and CC.

Purpose of the build would be for PvE and WvW.

I love doing Conditional dmg but I also like doing CC while having raw power (which comes with the rifle).

I just wanted to have several opinions and inputs to see if it would help me make up my mind :P

Well it sounds like you want to do everything all at once. HAHA!

That can be achieved but you are going to be a true jack of all trades type build. I would balance your stats out pretty evenly and use rifle for cc and elixir for conditions and some extra heals/cleanses. Otherwise you can go pistol/shield and have the best of both worlds then use grenades as your main damage and use the tool-belt on grenades for your burst. That will give you plenty of condition damage with pistol + grenades and the added utility slots of shield giving you a reflect and knock-back as well as a damage and block. This also frees up a few more utility slots to customize to your liking over something like rifle/elixir gun/grenades or the like.

I have gone both ways (full power cc and full condition and cc) and found it best to settle in the middle where I had some protection but was able to easily kite and throw down hurt as needed.

Everyone will find their own balance though that is why I leave allot of my build suggestions open ended instead of linking the almighty god mode build or something :P

With a grenade focused build the only BAD choice is dual pistols. That really makes no sense at all and can’t be justified except maybe in some really weird one-off circumstance I can’t think of right now.

Rifle has more mobility and more lockdown, shield gets you two very effective damage avoidance abilities. It really just depends on the situation. No real reason not to have both and switch them out as required from fight to fight.

For example if I’m sitting on a point shield is probably a better option especially if you’re facing any glass cannons. If I’m skirmishing I’ll use the rifle for the added mobility and the root.

I’m a Grenadier/Bomber engineer.
I rarely use rifle ( When I use it , it’s just for the knock down and net ).
I use bombs while kitting a melee mobs , grenades or ranged one and the mines for both.
This is my build >>
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQFAUl0paZHxynF17ISoHS49pWiKUZfeIXtFEC
Power Shoes trait will help alot with kitting.
So rifle is better XD.

Rifle scales better with power, so does grenades.
Go rifle.

Thanks for all the input guys, I think I’ll do better with a rifle after all!

TwiceDead.1963:

Rifle scales better with power, so does grenades.
Go rifle.

Yeah but power scaling doesn’t really matter: if you’re using grenades you’re not going to be doing damage with rifle much, you’ll be using it for the utility.

It really comes down to whether you want the added movement control from rifle’s root + jump or the added survivability from shield 4 and 5.

It matters for Grenade Barrage, which still scales based on the damage of your weapon.

Are you saying grenade barrage (or big bomb) does more damage with a rifle equipped than a pistol, all other things equal? I hadn’t thought about that. Doesn’t really have anything to do with power scaling per se but it’s an interesting point.

He is wrong.

Power scaling is directly tied to weapon damage. so, normally, yes it would.
an exotic rifles max damage is 1205, and a pistols max is 1029.
(grenade kit is 969)
Power means more for a rifle, as damage is calculated as:

skill coef*weapon damage*power/armor of target

Tooltip damage assumes a target has 2600 armor. Which is equiv to the heavy golem, and higher then most players.

However, remove your rifle or pistols. Grenade barrage still has a damage value.
Grenade barrage uses the grenade weapon kit 969 damage, it does NOT use your rifle or pistols weapon damage.

What it DOES use, is their STATS, when they and NOT the grenade weapon kit are equiped.

Stat wise 2 pistols=1 rifle.
Exotic zerker rifle=179 power, 128prec, 9% crit damage.
Exotic pistols= 90 power, 64 prec, 5% crit damage.
(admittedly, Im assuming its just a rounding error for the variance.)

I prefer the Rifle. I dont need a trait to get atleast 1000range on Hip Shot, which is still a nice ability since grenades over long-range are hard to hit a single target with. 1200 with trait. Good for finishing weak enemies who are moving around a lot/running away.

You also get Netshot, altough pitifully inaccurate and fails often over any half-decent range. In mid/close range is reliable enough, and immobilizing a target basicly lets you freely hit them with the full fury of your Grenade Barrage and if time is left, a Blunderbus/Jumpshot.

This immobilize can be chained into a lovely knockback with Overchargeshot. You get up faster then he does, and it basicly gives you a bit more time to freely hit your target. Generally it gets about 1 grenade throw to hit (i prefer Frost grenade, kitten near guarenteed hit on that is great)
And by now you have controlled your opponent for about 7seconds, while unloading a bunch of damage and applying conditions that seriously hamper his fight or flight.

Dual-pistol is the worst setup. Limited range, Explosiveshot sucks, PDV misses a lot aswell over range. And your only real control is Static Shot, which is just one blind. Glueshot is easily dodged, and not amazing control, its basicly just a cripple.
Blowtorch is also bad since its only effective if someone is already in your face, i’d much rather CC the guy breathing down my neck then deal condition damage.

pistol/shield is also a good combo to be honest. Its more defensive, lets you apply some conditions aswell if thats your fancy. The shield gives a stun if attacked and a knockback. Doubling as a ranged projectile reflector and ranged daze. Pretty decent CC and defense.

So basicly, go Rifle or Pistol/Shield. Depending on if you like conditiondamage+more defense. Or if you prefer more damage and more CC.