Guild Wars 2

So lemme lay this out for you.

Engie is my alt. I started out with turrets and for leveling they were fun, but I don’t really like them as much as say minions on a Necro (my main). So I went with a rifle build.

First off lemme say I’m almost ADDICTED to balancing things and this may be part of my “problem”.

The way I’m traited right now is:
30 Firearms, I have the 50% Vuln on crit, 20% recharge faster and 10% more damage traits.
10 Inventions for some extra toughness and 5% to power trait for some extra power.
30 Alchemy for Elixir recharges, HGH, and a survival trait (mostly drink Elixir S@25% health or Formula 409 for support).

Gear is power/prec/crit dmg rifle, Armor everything power/tough/vit except chest+legs which are power/prec/crit dmg. Amulets power/toughness/crit dmg.

What I have in utils is Goggles, Elixir S (for fury) and Battle Roar (extra fury) or Elixir R (extra survival).

Why am I boring you with this? Because in my head it makes sense but out there playing I’m not so sure. I’d like to deal a decent amount of damage (I’m alright but it’s kind of underwhelming) without being a total squishy (I’m used to playing a defense necro so maybe I’m fine here and I’m just not that used to dodging etc.). I’m particularly skeptical about running a build based on boons (fury) because it seems I depend too much on them.

Well, enough crap, any tips? Did I go terribly wrong somewhere?

For pve-starters on engineers I always suggest a classic static discharge build, out there you won’t need much survivability so knight gear (power prec tough) should be fine, anyway try it out even in the mists with rifle turret, utility goggles and anything of your choice (you’ll likely find grenade barrage a good source of damage), you’ll see some numbers for sure, keep in mind some traits aren’t even working so check the bug list.

If you aren’t using healing turret as your heal switch it asap, whoever doesn’t in pve (unless you’re traited into healing-triggering effects that suggests the use of med-kit) is doing it wrong, because it’s the skill that heals the most, not only its base heal, but the regen too, and you might want to know that when summoned it casts a 2-3s water field, this means that if you blow it up right after casting it you’ll cause an extra AoE healing (for about 1-2k at lv80) which is NICE, also its overcharge provides condition removal… did I mention you don’t need traits to use it?

Also I suggest not to rely on might stacks until you get a proper lv80 build.

Oops I forgot to add that even though it’s my alt it’s L80 and Exotic’d up.

I use Elixir H for heals because to me it seems the most effective heal (and it recharges faster), but I’ll give healing turret a try, thanks.

Any more tips welcome. I somehow think I should’ve went full knight and ignored crit dmg (even though I now have +25 or so) for more toughness/precision.

Try using Healing Turret. Drop it and pick it up immediately. Heals you for about 5k + Regen Boon and cools down faster.

Consider medkit. It has several heals when you’re in a pinch, and Drop Stimulant is pretty outstanding to have appended to a healing skill. The issue for most players is it takes a bit of skill to use, and memory to re-apply your stimulant every 20 seconds.

You can try something like this if you want:
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.4.8.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.80.96.0.0.102.0.0.0.230.0.0.242.249.0.0.0.0.274.0.0.289.287.297.10.20.0.10.30

10 explo
20 firearms (sitting duck, rifle mods)
10 alchemy (25% elixir S)
30 tools (pretty flexible there)

Suggested gear: Mainly knight’s with ruby orbs, emerald earrings with exquisite ruby orbs (if you can afford it, but exquisite emeralds are great, too). But the whole setup also works with some pwr/vit/tough in there so feel free to test around.
Suggested food: mango pies or omnom berry pies

Medkit: 14 sec cd heal + emergency medpacks + cond removal if needed + swiftness/fury? Simply awesome.

With your major traits in tools and your utility skills you are really quite flexible. You can really pick from those as you please:
-Kit Refinement (IV) with elixir gun: dual super elixirs cond removal + support healing + 1400/11 sec regen + acid bomb in combo with jump shot
-static discharge (II) with rifle turret/toolkit/seestatdischargebuildthreadsforalternatives
-packaged stimulants if you feel funky. It doesn’t state it but it turns medkit’s stimulants into 16 sec duration + 15 sec cooldown swiftness + fury (you seem to love that boon ;D ) compared to standard 11 sec/20 sec. This leaves you pretty open with your utility skill selection so you can swap as needed, take one for the team (elixir R) or just take elixir B
-adrenal implant (XII) for great endurance regen

suggested: IV, II, XII with elixir gun, rifle turret, tool kit. I’m currently running this and simply love it. Though feel free to test around.

bonus: you can switch out one of your tools traits (most often switch out XII) for speedy kits (VI) or packaged stimulants (VII) for permanent swiftness when running around outdoors or through dungeons