Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I’m looking for a pure rifle or pure PP pve build that doesn’t rely on bombs/ grenade kits or any kits that replaces rifle, I love the rifle/pistols and enjoy using only them , I’m just hoping there is a way to play engineer without the use of kits in pve

You might like the rifle, but it’s objectively weak outside of its #3 and #5. I agree it has its uses, and there was a time recently that you could run some sort of PvE Turret build (albeit not ideal), but that has since been an issue if any PvE mob attacks your turrets. You could try it though? It worked rather well against world bosses for me, but any time you need to move a lot it really isn’t that good.

For P/P, you could run a full condition build, but, again, the pistols are generally pretty weak compared to the kits. Conditions also won’t be too effective until the condition overhaul update, so I’d wait a little with that.

In either case, maybe a static discharge build would work? It relies on the trait of the same name in the tools adepts that pings enemies with lightning whenever you use a toolbelt skill. Usually the Rifle Turret is taken for the extra TB skill. If you run the Toolkit, you could get a 5 stack of confusion (with pry bar) and run P/P for extra condition damage. It also has a relatively low tool belt CD.

I would recommend to change to another class if you dont like kits. And dont get me wrong, play whatever you like, i dont care. But if you hate weapon swaps, engineer will be the worst pick you can do.

Either way, i agree SD is the best way to go if it should work without kits.

war rifle and thief p/p are also fun builds, so there is no such thing in the game yet.

UKADAM.3910:

Hey guys, I’m looking for a pure rifle or pure PP pve build that doesn’t rely on bombs/ grenade kits or any kits that replaces rifle, I love the rifle/pistols and enjoy using only them , I’m just hoping there is a way to play engineer without the use of kits in pve

The issue is that the profession is not designed to really play in the manner your looking for. Now you can play a static discharge build with no kits, and you can plan an HgH elixir build with no kits. They are functional build that offer little support of any kind with the exception of the tool belts AoEs of the elixirs. But either of those two builds would be my suggestion.

Man, it’d be kinda cool to play engie more as a steampunk gunslinger with p/p and a pure gadget build, but you’re severely handicapping yourself trying to do that. There just really isn’t a viable no-kit engie build. Even Static discharge and HGH benefit from having one kit in their build. (and Pure Turreteer only works in PvP, and was recently heavily nerfed) Your guns feel more like a back-up weapon to your kits than the other way around.

And the worst part:
Sticking primarily to mainly using a rifle or dual pistols is kind of a poor choice for EVERY class that has the option. Like, dual pistol thieves and rifle warriors have their uses, but you don’t want to be using those weapons all the time. Tyrian guns just aren’t that great.

We have yet to see the new elite spec, but I’m willing to bet a no-kit hammer engie will be viable, but probably not what you want either. Now that I think of it, because of the fact that engineers are balanced around kits, it would be nice if there was some kind of traits or skills to make a no-kit build more powerful. Like say a “gun supercharger” sort of gadget that gives you quickness that only works with your guns. Or a “reload” skill that refreshes your gun cooldowns and registers as a weapon swap for the purposes of runes and sigils.

Arioso.8519:

Or a “reload” skill that refreshes your gun cooldowns and registers as a weapon swap for the purposes of runes and sigils.

Aw man, an autoreloader gadget would be great. Maybe a main ability of resetting cooldowns and a toolbelt that involves special ammunition, like the flamethrower toolbelt. AP rounds would seem like an obvious choice, perhaps helping to give the engineer a good source of vulnerability without needing to use explosives.

I’ve been running this for the last month or so (I have 3,900 hours on my Engi and have tried many, many different builds):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQJAqalUUpdr1UxkLseRSeBN6rkkgAy8FAxFwvA-TxBBAB4p+DAPIAzU+ZneCHVCuxJEQm9HIFgZCjA-e

It’s been crazy fun. It has Kits, but the PP along with Static Discharge packs a combined Damage and Condi wallop.

Works for me in WvW and PvE.

SD zerker rifle. I used to mathcraft all this stuff. but have not since returning, so am partially relying on wiki info. info that itself was not always entirely accurate in the past.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQFAUlUUpkr1UxxLseNifBN6m8jID6CEgl+p1B-TBCEABqphggHAQiq/slSQmU+lz+DtpDAgLAApAMTYE-e

Engi rifle is one of the highest innate dps weapons in the game. not saying this is as good as your meta grenade rotation. but its better then average, and much more enjoyable imho.

So you can autoattack a bit. but, yeah you do still want to use the full package.
Rifle 3 is huge dps, as well as rifle 5. Rifle 4 is a dps loss usually unless its also CC breaking, or you run with a stunbreak. (Im not going to recommend doing so in a sec.)

Rifle 1: 254 base. .650 coeff. .75a/s.
Rifle 3: 625 base. 1.6 coeff 10s base cd. at 200. + 4stacks of bleed.
Rifle 5. 352base .9coeff, + 703 base 1.8 coef. 20s CD. +3x2 vul. 1s channel.

Heal slot.
H or turret both are good. pick which you like. turret can be popped for might stacks of allies fire fields. aoe cleansing. water fields with rifle 5. H has bigger direct heals.
Neither is great for SD.

Slot 1. Toolkit.
TK 3. Prybar. 658 base. 2 coeff. 15CD. +5s confuse. this is part of your rotation.
(not sure on tk1. its raw stats are higher then hipshot I believe, but kit weapon damage is lower then rifle, so should be weaker dps. )
Slot 2. Rifle turret.
Autofire. 476 damage. +vul 10s duration. Rifle turret is “mostly” for Surprise shot. But, using autofire, and detonate when surprise is on CD is extra damage. so use surprise, then drop the turret, engage Autofire. and blow it before it gets destroyed, or Surprise is back up.
Slot 3. Battering ram.
308 damage. (coeff not listed.) 25s cd. (is more then a traited hipshot.)
Ult. supply drop of course.

Toolbelt skills. (wiki lists damages as without weapons. so actual damage is higher. as toolbelt skills ARE effected by your equiped weapon.)
Throw wrench.
246×2 base damage 1×2 coeff. 20s cd. +vul, cripple. .5s cast.
Surprise shot.
246 base, 1 coeff. instant fire.(can be fired when stunned, prone, etc.) 10s cd.

Launch battering ram.
369 base damage, 1.5coeff. 15s cd. +cripple and daze. .25s cast.

SD can toolbelt skills.
There is a bug. And of course a second issue with ground targeted skills.
both heals are ground or untargeted. so AIMING the SD will be difficult/impossible. if face tanking it might land. If not, forget it.
Targeted skills. throw wrench, surprise shot, and launch personal battering ram, will have SD be targeted properly.

SD lists on wiki as 135 base damage. .5 coeff. 2 bounces. (this value should be effected by weapon. using rifle damage when rifle is equiped, and kit damage when kit is equiped. Meaning you WANT to have rifle up when using SD.)
Activates on all toolbelt use. detonate turret, and surprise shot both for example.
Detonate is not targeted though. gl aiming it.
The bug is related to toolbelt skills, and their cast times. under normal use, with auto attack active, skills with cast times will do “normal” damage SD. while Instant skills, such as surprise shot, will appear to do double or damage SD.
Meaning in practice my hip shot hits for about 650-700. A SD should hit for about 350-400.
But, surprise shot SD hits for 650-800.
Bizarrely, if you ctrl+2 off auto attack, the damage flips. SD on skills with cast times, now do the double damage, and instant the normal. this is just a note, not something to try and make use of really..

Firearms. adept and master are pretty clear. GM. bunker down, vs mod amm, vs hair trigger. Tough choice. not really sure which really.
explosives. accel packed for rifle/healing turret damage on death is good. or emp adren. dodge rolling in and back out, to drop bombs, and keep 5% up.
Tools. SD of course, speedy kits of course,
Gadgeteer if you run goggles, throw mine, or rocket boots instead of turret/wrench. all 3 are viable options too.
scope is ok. but you will be melee most of the time.
Power wrench is ok for prybar.., kit refinement, as you will be swapping in and out.. .but its “box of nails” for toolkit. which is also meh.
Speedy gadgets will give faster rams, gadgeteer fury on ram..

High crit/ferocity. I run “of air”, and “bloodlust” to help make up for the lack of explosives trait +power.

Dpsing you run everything. notice, all those skills do more damage then your auto. use everything. Toolbelt skills on CD. Ram itself. detonates. rifle turret autofire.
And of course you have some CC there too… ram kb, ram daze, blunderbuss kb, toolkit pull, and block..

I run SD Rifle w.Zerk gear, and SD Pistol/Pistol w.Celestial gear. Note: I play it for fun in open world.