Guild Wars 2

I have started to play World vs World recently. My main is an engineer, so… I’ve gone there as engineer obviously.

First time, I tried zerg with my guild. Pvt and stuff, grenadier basically. 6, 0, 2, 4, 2 or something around it.
I tried either bombs and grenades, but… I’ve been always ending as a dead one. One of the first dead. I have no clue, how or what should I use in big zerg.

I’ve tried roaming and small group fights! And there it’s a bit better, though I am still learning, how to fight.
I’ve created – as my friend called it – faceroll condi engineer. Perplexity runes, 4, 2, 2, 4, 2… or other combinations, like 6 in alchemy by cost of firearms. Tool kit, Elixir S and bomb kit.
As I said, results’ve been better, tho I am still uncertain, so I am looking for advices. Would you guys help me?

Engis aren’t really optimal for zergs, our lack of stability and stun breaks do make it hard for us. However, i find that in zergs its best to stay on the rim of the fight and chucking grenades from down range. As for small groups engis are great and thats what engis excel at. For the role of an engi in a zerg, I’ll say the best role is aoe damage with nades we dont offer much boons or heals however we have a lot of blast finishers so i guess blasting fields is another role.

perpl is if u wanna be good and u’re 80 yo man and pretty blind and slow already, then u need them, or u mother sitting with children that always drag your attention out of game etc.

WvW overall consitss of alot of kitten, but let’s divide it to
1. Roaming.
2. Zerging.
3. Ninja!!!!!!!!

1. Is about scouting, taking camps, defending towers, keeps, dolyaks ruins and having small fights 1v2, 2v1, 3v3 max 10v10.
2. all kitten that goes about 20+ – taking keeps, fighting blobs, taking towers, defending kitten.
3. It’s mostly ninja capturing staff with low numbers, fighting outnumbered and trying to not be spotted if u opening some tower, keep, castle, garri.

1 and 3 engis are awesome.

2 – first learn this class and u will see. It’s ok for that but not as OK as guard or war that are just made for it and easy to play as kittening cats. Wave of wrath wave of wrath wave of wrath.

Best kittens.

Gooz Nooz.2960:

Engis aren’t really optimal for zergs, our lack of stability and stun breaks do make it hard for us. However, i find that in zergs its best to stay on the rim of the fight and chucking grenades from down range. As for small groups engis are great and thats what engis excel at. For the role of an engi in a zerg, I’ll say the best role is aoe damage with nades we dont offer much boons or heals however we have a lot of blast finishers so i guess blasting fields is another role.

In my experience engies are great for zergs.

• The engineers on my server often get asked to run mines to work with necros to set up areas to lead the other zerg through to do massive boon strips.

• We have 2 low cool down water fields with healing turret to drop on Pin to blast.

• AoE heals on the bomb kit keep a constant 250+ heal tic up on 5 people at one time. Offer AoE blinds, and skirt stability with AoE immobility.

• EG has many benefits, and aoe heal field, 12 cool down aoe cleanse.

At least these are the benefits of the build I run when I am commanding.

If your lacking in guardians or warriors and need stability you can always toss in Elixir B for some AoE stability. Although I find I almost never needed to carry this in a zerg.

If you wanna run in front line in zerg with commander try mine WvW build (in signature) I usualy never die and collect all loot around:-)

solo everything in sight and run almost as fast as a warrior, but be back line instead of hammer train
thats my role
people are gravy, specially if they help out and dont just kitten around

Okay, so I understand my role in zerg. But…

Would someone advice me with traits for either zerg and roaming? I assume that standard pve nade build isn’t good, there must be a difference.
Also, if I put trait points correctly in my condi build? What skills should I use?

Here I put link to it. Trinkets are others, but that’s matter of time: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdEQJAqelUUpkr1XxPLseRSeBNqkEqMA68FgKLyAuDA-ThSBABN/AAwR9HvUaBmyEJVCG9+DAqHAgDEQeaIy+EAEAABgZOzbOzZOzSBwkuK-e

Tarreth.8914:

Okay, so I understand my role in zerg. But…

Would someone advice me with traits for either zerg and roaming? I assume that standard pve nade build isn’t good, there must be a difference.
Also, if I put trait points correctly in my condi build? What skills should I use?

Here I put link to it. Trinkets are others, but that’s matter of time: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdEQJAqelUUpkr1XxPLseRSeBNqkEqMA68FgKLyAuDA-ThSBABN/AAwR9HvUaBmyEJVCG9+DAqHAgDEQeaIy+EAEAABgZOzbOzZOzSBwkuK-e

That’s really horrible build, no wonder you’ve got no success with it.
Try something more in this direction: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdEQJAqelUUpkrtbxPLseVCbBNqxEqMCqNIyNWlP2gAA-TRiIABho+DE7PEkSLAeAADpMpOlgjpHgLNE8eCACAgAwMn5Nn5MnZpAgZaE-e with condi bombs 4-2-0-4-2 for sure and 2 trait points left for your choice. And that’s for roaming.

For zerg you should have different set – power focused set.

Perplexity runes…..no increased bomb radius…y u need to learn alot =)

Perpl roamer – low skill involved.

FT zerger – useless piece of kitten.

Thank, I waswondering lately, how did I manage to put so many points in firearms ;o now you found it, lol.

Also, I know that for zerg it’s soldier’s gear. Yet, I wonder if something faster to act, than grenades – like for example static discharge build or turret build would be good too?

Tarreth.8914:

Thank, I waswondering lately, how did I manage to put so many points in firearms ;o now you found it, lol.

Also, I know that for zerg it’s soldier’s gear. Yet, I wonder if something faster to act, than grenades – like for example static discharge build or turret build would be good too?

Neither. Turrets are still in pretty bad place and any dps class can destroy bunch of them within literally seconds (imagine how long turrets would last if eg. 25 players were attacking them). SD is a power-roaming build which isn’t good when there are many people involved since the AoE with it is rather poor.
For zerg there are 3 options: bombs, granades, flamethrower of which the last one is the worst in my opinion. Bombs are pretty solid with frontline tank (eg. 2-0-6-4-2 knight/calestial gear doing pretty decent big aoe spammable damage while healing yourself and allies). Granades as backliner DPSer (eg. 6-1-1-4-2 with knight/zerker items).
As you can see, builds change pretty drasticly depending on playstyle.

Edit: Also my little tip (looking at your build) would be to be strict with same stat items. Eg. if you run condi build – use every item with condition bonus. If you run direct damage build, use items with power always. The only little exception would be calestial gear, but that’s just nice add-up to build focused already on something (eg. power fucused build with mix of calestial gear). Same goes for traits.

Yeah, I always feared, how should I mix gear. Like pvt with knight or zerker with knight or… even cavalier! No idea there, I’ll have to try everything out. Tho, on my level it would be better to play more safely, like soldier, right?

I actually main an engie in wvw, they’re one of the few classes you can switch from roaming to zerging without having to change your build. Zerg role, you are a mid to back line fighter. Grenades are one of the few AoE skills that break the 5 man limit, but be careful of retal. You also have healing turret, which is the largest water field in the game. Now for roaming I’d recommend a condi or hybrid build. For zerging, you would go with something that can pour on the damage and still be able to take a hit. Here’s an example of one of the builds I run.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdIQFAUlUUpEr9ZxALseNSbBNyw00Qu0K+5CEgjC-TVCBABCY/BPq/YoOAJuAAYpcxLlUA8AAoQJYCmgIDg+YA-w
It’s a power and crit based build, and trust me, those grenades can do a LOT of damage. Each grenade can crit at about 1.3k damage per target, and you throw 3 of them. Your number 2 skill hits even harder, the grenades can hit for about 1.6k damage each grenade. Grenade Barrage is a massive aoe burst. With bomb kit you have an extra blast finisher, or knockback, can stack might, stealth, and the bombs hit for about 4-5k each on the auto attack. Elixer C, Instant cleansing of that condi bomb to your benefit. Somthing else that’s useful to remember, Engies have many combo fields, in this one you have fire, poison, water, and smoke, and a lot of finishers, 2 blast, 1 projectile, and 1 leap in this build, learn how to combo them effectively. This build is a mid line. You can charge up with hammers, but you go squish to easy, your job is heavy aoe damage and pressure on a zerg, think mobile artillery. Yeah, not going to do a lot of damage with your condis, but remember, poison’s main effect isn’t really damage, at least on this build, but rather it restricts their healing, and combos into area weakness. If you do need to run away, drop a big ol’ bomb, smoke bomb, and you get 3 seconds of stealth. Then just run, dropping bombs behind you, glue bomb especially. I’ve wiped most of a zerg that way, I ran halfway around the map dropping bombs and they kept getting hammered by them as they chased me.

I see. Knight’s set is a must there, right?

Tarreth.8914:

I see. Knight’s set is a must there, right?

Well, after “critical damage nerf” knight set is great choice (for me it always was). It gives you toughness you need, power and critical chance (with granades it’s really cool to have tad over 60% so 2/3 granades crit). I also partly think that vitallity is a little useless stat.

At the beginning focus either on bombs or granades, pick your role. As written above, with each playstyle you can get much more when you change build than using universal one.

Vitality is much more worth then thougthness before using the healing skill the second time in fight.

Forestnator.6298:

Vitality is much more worth then thougthness before using the healing skill the second time in fight.

pretty much every decent fight goes for at least 2 heal cds.

If you want to jump in the front line there’s some guides for that kind of play around, check this guide by Mishva.
Apart from that, if you want some roaming, then the most common condi builds will work just fine, you can even try a burst SD build.

Forestnator.6298:

Vitality is much more worth then thougthness before using the healing skill the second time in fight.

Vitality is just universal for direct damage and conditions. And conditions are not a real damage in zerg since there is so much cleanse and nobody runs condi damage build so there’s no real threat. Toughness is much better cause you take less damage so it’s easier to heal it all up.
There were dozens of topics proving that vitality and toughness are good for burst – very short fight when there’s not much time to heal it up, but for anything longer toughness (and healing power) primarly is much better.

trif.6192:

If you want to jump in the front line there’s some guides for that kind of play around, check this guide by Mishva.

do not do that. Use your own mind. Misha got alot good points in his build but overall it’s pretty bad, dunno who decided his build as an example and making a guide out of it is too early for him. And flamethrower…is just rediculous don’t go that way in zerg. Never.

Some people linking fail guides, some not. Use your own brain, steal all good and know that 95% of zerg builds for engi in wvw that are purposed on this forum (or any other from what i saw) by some Yoda’s are kitten.

So I need to get yet Knight’s set… Dear God.
I’ll try to set something up, tho.

I run this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdEQFAUlUUp6q9Zx+KseNiaBF6bE1AI6Qmlb/pIA-TFyHABhdBAOZ/hEV/hJlg9oMwHleepjAgHEApAKSZE-w when i’m running with a zerg

Gooz Nooz.2960:

Engis aren’t really optimal for zergs, our lack of stability and stun breaks do make it hard for us. However, i find that in zergs its best to stay on the rim of the fight and chucking grenades from down range. As for small groups engis are great and thats what engis excel at. For the role of an engi in a zerg, I’ll say the best role is aoe damage with nades we dont offer much boons or heals however we have a lot of blast finishers so i guess blasting fields is another role.

What are you talking about? We are one of the classes with the most stun breaks in the game, and we also have access to stability. Healing turret is one of the best AOE heals in the game. Grenades are terrible in zergs, they’re inprecise, don’t do much damage, and offer a quick suicide by way of retaliation.

Bombs on the other hand are great for zergs, they pack a huge punch, offer bling and immob/cripple fields, fire fields for might stacking, AOE big damage knockbacks and can be traited to heal for 300+ per bomb – oh, and this synergizes great with the drop a bomb on evade minor trait – not quite as good as the guardians dodge heal trait but the guardians dodge heal also won’t hit enemies for 1.5k – 2k + damage.. so arguably better? Slick shoes are also great for zerging, cut the enemy zerg in half with slick shoes and rocket boots.

Engis are great if played properly (just like any other class). I can say this very loud cause my main toon is Engineer. Linking build means nothing I rather explain it.
In a nutshell – my build is around grenade kit and survival. Mass-destruction is what engis do best.

Traits – 6/0/0/2/6. Trait line #1 – top trait is Grenadier (obvious), mid tier is Incendiary Powder, lower tier – Shrapnel. Briefly speaking these two traits give the best DPS bonus to Grenade Engi. There will be other story for any other spec but these two are the best choices, trust me, I did very complex math testing for different sets of gear. Alchemy trait is vigor on heal. Last trait line – top tier aegis on 15 sec CD, 10% crit chance on ranged attacks and speedy kits. Aegis on 15 sec is the reason why I take this trait tree.

Weapon – rifle. Excellent CC potential. Shield has good potential too but I love rifle’s net to chase runners. Pistols are not an option cause they are much like grenades so this would be an overkill.

Heal – kit. You can swap it on demand and get vigor from traits WHEN you NEED it. Ofcourse you can take turret for AOE-heals and water fields but I often roam in small groups so I prefer kit.

Utilities – Rocket Boots, Elixir C, Grenade Kit. Combo of Elixir C, boots jump, and invisibility from belt gives you an excellent choice of escape tools. So – grenades to kill, and aegis, boots, vigor, elixir – to survive.

Elite – supply kit. What else? Plus this is a 2 sec AOE stun.

Stat mix – PVT armor, runes of Eagle, sigils – +crit% and stacks of condi damage, berserker weapon, Dire/PVT accessories. Engi is a class that can afford being a jack of trades. This is a beauty of it – you take what you like and you keep on rocking. I did lots of math on grenades damage with different stats and out of 6 grenade abilities (incl belt’s) only poison grenade is highly dependent on the stats mix (needs condi gear) – others are in a situation ‘some win, some lose’.

Happy killing!