Guild Wars 2

Hi, im new to engineer
What is the pros and cons of each weapon?
Which ones is better for pvp ?
Thanks for the help !!!

Well. . .

Rifle is generally tied to power and direct damage.
Advantage:
1) Hits harder
2) Range
3) Mobility and Escape tools/skills

Disadvantage:
1) Not really designed for condition damage
2) Loses a sigil slot (pistol has offhand slot)
3) Loses ability to take a shield

1st Pistol Advantages:
1) Fast firing auto attack
2) Outstanding “bounce” skill that causes both confusion and blindness on a short timer
3) Easy poison on short timer
4) Ability to take shield (outstanding defensively) or
5) 2cd pistol that has a very long burn duration skill

Disadvantage
1) Conditions over physical damage oriented
2) Range
3) Less evasion/mobility control

I think pistol/shield is the best combination because engineers excel with kits at putting down a variety of conditions and confusion stacks. But the engineer is a class where you have so many options on builds and styles of play. There are plenty of builds using a rifle that are effective.

I think bombsaway about covered it, but I would like to add something to one point:

1) Not really designed for condition damage

At this point in time, I feel like the main advantage of an engineer is being able to take full advantage of Might. I know that sounds like a small thing, but I’ve tried many, many builds for PvP and they all expose a flaw that engineers mostly agree on – there is nothing we excel at. DPS builds out-damage us, bunker builds out-last us. Even hybrid builds out-perform us mostly (at least the viable ones do).

That’s if we only utilise our power builds or our condition builds. However, if you use a might stacking build, you can trait for survivability (to some extent) and let the damage bonuses from might provide a very good DPS.

If you accept all of the above, then one big advantage of the pistol is that it is hybrid damage. Rifle has mostly direct damage components, whereas pistol has both DD and condi, and as such has a much better DPS increase from stacked might.

with might stacking its either or… meaning youre either going to be using it for a power build(rifle) or a condi build(pistol/x)

pistol should never be used in a power/crit build because rifle will always outright just out dps pistol in every power aspect of direct dmg.

Condition dmg, as bombs said, is the pistols forte.

Heres an extreme (25 might stacks) example of the power build i use.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlIqicnpy2F17IxoHkW0bGki863PKobbB-jUCBYfBhKAIBqIas9BFRjVXDT5CW7KQaYJ1auIa1CBIYMA-w

Now heres the same build but with pistol over rifle.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqalIqicnpy2F17IyoHkmotZgekX21I+pAdB-jECBYfChJQFRjtPoIas6aYKXwaXBSDLpWzFRrWIABjBA-w

(i tweaked the pistol build to better suit a “power” based pistol build. which you could use and gain more CC in cripples/immobilize and get a little boost with condi dmg on target getting around a constant 12% dmg boost. But it still wouldnt be close to a rifles dmg.

The rifle has 3 big hits 3-4-5 all crit for over 4k on most ppl and 5 can straight up kill burst builds.

also we have some serious dmg we can unleash if we spec for it. Take the rifle build i posted and change it up and youll see higher dmg numbers.(i use that spec for more cc with turrets and the ability to switch up to mines/bombs/FT/EG if need be.)
notice how the pistol dmg pales in comparison to the rifles even 1 skill. Only pistol 4 comes anywhere near what rifle can do with DD but its on a 12 sec cd(traited)

Pistol/X = Condition builds

Rifle = DD builds

Edit—- When clicking the link, add the 25 Stacks of might for both links and compare. I add the stacks before making the link but it wont link it with the stacks.

Well I am not at all sure I would agree that might stacking is the only way to play an engineer.

You can get quite the same or better damage stacking a number and frequency of conditions. Each condition doesn’t have to be max damage if you have many more conditions than you would otherwise.

Similarly, most condition builds have extra defensive bombs/grenades and against many groups (vs 1 on 1) they can be amazing timed right. Blinds, knockbacks, stuns.

I always felt when running HGH that I was missing some of the diversity of what an engineer could do (and you are if you go from 20 skills to under 10).

Both work, but I would dare say that the total damage of a good condition build will out do a pure damage build 8 of 10 times assuming there is enough time for the conditions to build. Power builds apply more damage over a shorter condensed timeframe.

Bombsaway.7198:

Both work, but I would dare say that the total damage of a good condition build will out do a pure damage build 8 of 10 times assuming there is enough time for the conditions to build. Power builds apply more damage over a shorter condensed timeframe.

That simply is not true. Full glass power will always outdps condi (provided you use the right weapons and rotations and not just sticking in say flamethrower).

Bombsaway.7198:

Well I am not at all sure I would agree that might stacking is the only way to play an engineer.

You can get quite the same or better damage stacking a number and frequency of conditions. Each condition doesn’t have to be max damage if you have many more conditions than you would otherwise.

Similarly, most condition builds have extra defensive bombs/grenades and against many groups (vs 1 on 1) they can be amazing timed right. Blinds, knockbacks, stuns.

I always felt when running HGH that I was missing some of the diversity of what an engineer could do (and you are if you go from 20 skills to under 10).

Both work, but I would dare say that the total damage of a good condition build will out do a pure damage build 8 of 10 times assuming there is enough time for the conditions to build. Power builds apply more damage over a shorter condensed timeframe.

Yes, I agree it lacks diversity, but as it stands, the extra options are not worth as much to me as the extra damage.

You still get the blinds etc, from condition kits if you do hgh/nades or hgh/bombs.

For PvE: I run the rifle. I always thought that the second sigil going with pistol was too important to go without, but the truth of the matter is that your damage output is significantly greater if you integrate rifle skills into your rotation that your damage will be just having a second sigil. I really only swap in the shield when we truly need that extra blast finisher.

For PvP: The rifle is better for control, the pistol for conditions, and the shield for defense. I use them all depending on the composition of the other team. Sometimes knocking people back with Overcharged Shot is better than using the shield and blocking attacks. Active versus reactive play, so to speak.

Rifle with a condi build seems pretty good, you can knockdown your enemy for quite a while allowing you to put some condi on them w/ grenade, bomb, etc. Don’t forget that it can immoblize. Im starting to use rifle more than pistol now with my condi build. But this is my opinion hope this help you out.

Isn’t it great that engineer is a class where you can have a serious discussion about what weapons and type of damage is best?

The reality is they both work very well with the class. All three weapon combinations work. Both types of damage work well.

I still prefer the conditions especially playing against multiple targets. 1 v 1 so much of it will depend on the other character’s build. Situation by situation I could argue one is better/worse. I do a LOT of swapping of weapons between rifle and pistol/shield or pistol/pistol. By baseline remains pistol/shield but a lot of fights while running in it is the thing I am swapping out.

Bombsaway.7198:

Isn’t it great that engineer is a class where you can have a serious discussion about what weapons and type of damage is best?

The reality is they both work very well with the class. All three weapon combinations work. Both types of damage work well.

I still prefer the conditions especially playing against multiple targets. 1 v 1 so much of it will depend on the other character’s build. Situation by situation I could argue one is better/worse. I do a LOT of swapping of weapons between rifle and pistol/shield or pistol/pistol. By baseline remains pistol/shield but a lot of fights while running in it is the thing I am swapping out.

I know it’s like this class is actually able to not just run the super popular builds!! Although I prefer my static discharge power build over conditions.. thus, my rifle is my favourite.

And I get to show off my jetpack in battle }:D

Twigifire.8379:

Bombsaway.7198:

Isn’t it great that engineer is a class where you can have a serious discussion about what weapons and type of damage is best?

The reality is they both work very well with the class. All three weapon combinations work. Both types of damage work well.

I still prefer the conditions especially playing against multiple targets. 1 v 1 so much of it will depend on the other character’s build. Situation by situation I could argue one is better/worse. I do a LOT of swapping of weapons between rifle and pistol/shield or pistol/pistol. By baseline remains pistol/shield but a lot of fights while running in it is the thing I am swapping out.

I know it’s like this class is actually able to not just run the super popular builds!! Although I prefer my static discharge power build over conditions.. thus, my rifle is my favourite.

And I get to show off my jetpack in battle }:D

Wooooot! Me too lol in saving up for my jetpack now and that’s all I have to complete my engi. I just made my predator and tweaked my SD to my final liking.

I swear the engi is the most diversed class in the game with the sheer amount of variations of core builds we can run. We have a bunker/condi/burst and they all have several viable specs one could run. I just wish I would’ve found engi sooner lol. My last and final toon. I love this prof section too because we all have strong opinions and arguments but it’s not a kitten ing match.