Guild Wars 2

Hello guys,
I was wondering what everyone is doing in WvWvW, or which “role” do you play there ? I mean, according to ANET we are supposed to be control freaks, but I do not see really how to “control” anything in world versus world, except maybe by carpet bombing a tunnel with nades… Maybe…

Personnaly, I am more a fan of defending keeps, or attacking with the zerg from a distance.
My build is P/S Grenade HGH with condi duration runes, and this is great fun.

So to put it in a nutshell, my questions are:

1) What are you guys doing in WvWvW ? (Roaming ? Defending ? Zerging ?)
2) What do you think shall be our role in WvWvW ?

Cheers

1) Roaming as duo with my thief friend
2) Depends on 1’s playstyle

My playstyle is support heal/tank/cc/condition removal engi duo roaming with my thief friend for zerg slaying. I have 3 vids as examples w/ 3 different types of builds in another post in this same thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/WvW-Engi-in-outnumbered-situations-NP/first#post2102061

I either roam or run havoc in wvw, but that’s only because i hate the lag zergs come with.
imo, engis role in wvw is to do a role thats needed on the spot.

If you regel like you lack control abilities i’d say you ought to try flamethrower and elixir gun, eg 2# give you cripple to enemies and swiftness to allies 3# condition removal and invurnability while ft got a aoe knockback. I run eg ft and p/s + Healing turret för wvwvw. Great support and damage

I spend most of my time doing one of these:

1. Solo roaming
2. Solo Defending supply camps (can defend it from up to 4-6 enemies at the same time with LOS and kiting abusing)
3. Havoc Squad with friends.

I do also know that we are quite good at:
Tower Defending
Healing support, we got a 3 second Waterfield now with the new Healing Turret + easy acces to a lot of blast finishers in a build that can still work, take Shield, Elixir Gun and Bomb kit, and then you got 4x Blast Finishers when you pop the Healing Turret as well

also, HGH Grenades are awesome for defending Towers, amazing AOE damage, the mobile AC :P

Tacgnol.8079:

I mean, according to ANET we are supposed to be control freaks, but I do not see really how to “control” anything in world versus world, except maybe by carpet bombing a tunnel with nades… Maybe…

The best control build in WvW is, as far as I can tell, a build based on grenades and pistol/shield. To control people, you can toss posion grenades in tight passageways to deter enemies from running in until it dissipates, chill them to severely limit their movement speed, blind them to keep friends and yourself alive longer, as well as use the knockback and block of your shield on the frontlines. For fun, try knocking half the enemy zerg off a cliff with shield #4!

But your role is very much determined by your build more than your profession. I like switching between a flamethrower build for frontline aggression, the grenade build for control, and a build focused on the rifle (believe it or not) for solo or small group reconnaissance or supply camp harassment.

The only thing that’s always consistent between all of them is Speedy Kits. It’s nearly a must-have trait in WvW. Permanent Swiftness is a godsend in those maps.

Amadeus.5687:

Healing support, we got a 3 second Waterfield now with the new Healing Turret + easy acces to a lot of blast finishers in a build that can still work

Tell me about it. I’ve fallen in love with the combo deploy healing turret, overcharge healing turret, detonate healing turret.

I just roam around, either solo or in a small group (never more than 5) trying to take down as many as possible and still live to pick up the loot bags.

I guess within the group my role falls into:
-stomping (elixir S/toss S) when the guardian has his skills on cooldown
-calling targets, because any target with poison, burning and confusion and 2-3 guys assisting is done for.
-pulling those who get too close with magnet.
-dropping cripple puddles for escapes (toolkit #2, p#5)
-assist with aoe stun and medpacks (supply crate), puddles and elixir tosses when someone is in trouble
-dealing insane ammounts of condition damage while still being very very tanky. the few times I get focused, most enemies just give up and switch to someone else, because there’s no point in hitting me if I’m using S, gear shield, cripple puddles, supply crate while hitting with retaliation and having protection, regen, swiftness, and my team saving my kitten if needed.
-being independent, even while in a group. I can bring down a target on my own fast, others in my group very rarely have to worry about my health, rely on my own skill set to escape (while a guardian or necro will need something like mass invis or portal or refuge), go very deep into a zerg for a kill or stomp and make it back to my lines in good shape.

1. Solo roamer (which is very dangerous at heavily crowded EU tier #1 and #2). Capping supply camps, Quaggans and other NPC objectives alone.
2. PuG commander, when the map needs it.

I sometimes roam in small groups as well. We often have 3 engineers, but I have been also roaming with other professions and I can tell you that 1 engineer + 1 thief is better than 2 engineers. Engi can CC+ poison the target and thief can down him in a second.

Grenadier is great at siege situations, but overall in big zergs engineer is not that effective because retaliation still has been doing full damage at the borderlands (reported bug) and throwing a grenade barrage at an enemy blob is recipe for suicide Even over 15k relaliation damage from one grenade barrage is possible when enemy has a tighly packed melee train consisting of warriors and guardians. Flame jet would be equally bad idea. The mega lag associated with zerg clashes hurts engineer more than many other professions.

Using a power FT/EG Elixirs/Juggernaught build, I roam decently enough when needed. I do surprisingly well as a zerg frontline flamer grunt however, and I love nothing more than getting behind enemy lines to spam my knockbacks to separate individuals from the zerg into the jaws of our own.

Elixir S trait and 409 buys me just enough time to escape the zerg when I need to, where I can support quite well with stupid low cd fumigate condition cleansing, some healing, and blast finishers where needed.

7k flameblasts on a target which I have poisoned, blinded and confused, and can subject further control effects to is a joyous thing.

I now recently use HGH p/p grenade build. We are so much better within a zerg than roam solo. We can basically keep enemies off the ledge of keeps, bombard narrow paths, and scatter zergs knocking on keep gates by spamming nades. I also found that fighting in a tight and narrow spaces such as chokepoints, stairs and tunnels are most advantageous to us than in open areas. Engineers aren’t usually the heroes but in terms of loot count, heck we can get quite a lot given our cc skills.

I run a p/p + grenade/elixir build. Good range aoe and lots of cc. Very effective if zergs clump up. The only issue is skill lag, it becomes terribly apparent during big fights, wish our kitten didn’t have cast times etc.

I solo/duo about 98% of the time. I pretty much do what Amadeus does. I spend a good bit of my time in supply camps and defending them. Although I’m not nearly good enough to solo defend it against 4 to 6 players.

When I’m duoing we’ll do different things depending on whats needed on the battlefield.

I’d love to run in a 5 man havock squad. Just never get the chance to.

How do you guys fare against other popular roamers such as thieves and mesmers? Also what can you contribute to a group, aoe and knockbacks?

ATourist.8359:

How do you guys fare against other popular roamers such as thieves and mesmers? Also what can you contribute to a group, aoe and knockbacks?

As with any profession, only a really good thief or mesmer will be a challenge. If you are good you will make any profession that isn’t played well look awful.

I run mostly solo roaming, roaming with a few guildies, or a guild havoc squad of up to 15 people when I am in WvW.

Currently the build for the havoc squad is P/P, Heal turret, Bombs, Tool kit, Elixir gun, supply crate.

What do we bring?

AOE CC – mulitple AOE immobilizes, AOE launch, AOE blind, AOE stun, AOE cripple

AOE condi removal – healing turret overcharge, elixir gun fumigate

Massive water field – Healing turret water field lasts 3s and is monstrous, amazing for coordinated water field blasts for heals

AOE healing – bomb explosions heal allies, healing turret overcharge and all the subsequent blasts, tool belt abilities on both heal turret and elixir gun, super elixir.

AOE damage – burning, poison, bleeding, confusion – we do it all and we can do it AOE

I’m sure I’m missing some, and this is just what we can do with the specific build I run.

ATourist.8359:

How do you guys fare against other popular roamers such as thieves and mesmers? Also what can you contribute to a group, aoe and knockbacks?

From my experience, Engineers certainly have the tools necessary to counter both those professions really well. So success will ultimately depend on your skill vs theirs. Amadeus made some “How to” videos on fighting both those professions in fact. The key to being able to counter them is knowing what to expect and recognize. Which his videos do quite well IMO. I know Mesmers became much more managable for me to fight after watching his videos. Really good mesmers still wreck my world though. But that’s a failure in my skill, not the Engineer profession.

^great post by Brimstone. A big part of being able to overcome a skilled person playing any profession is knowing what that profession can do.

Best way to learn to counter one, go make one and play it in sPVP until you don’t suck at it anymore.

Not sure about the role of Engineers in WvW, but I’ll tell you how I run mine to great success.

I run a 10/30/0/30/0 split in WvW:

Explosives: Incendiary Powder
Firearms: Hair Trigger, Fireforged Trigger, Coated Bullets
Alchemy: Fast Acting Elixirs, Protection Injection, Cleansing Formula 409

Lately in zergs I’ve run with the Flamethrower + Elixir Gun. With the changes to the Healing Turret, the amount of support we provide with the Healing Turret and Elixir Gun together is quite incredible. Drop Water fields for Area Heals and Light fields for Retaliation. Fumigate for condition removal. If you feel like being a real pro, set up some Blast finishers through Magnetic Inversion and Acid Bomb. I mostly just use the Flamethrower as a badge vacuum, and if Retaliation is really that bad I’ll swap to the Pistol for Coated Bullets, which is almost as good as tagging with Flame Jet.

When roaming/hitting camps with a group I swap out the Flamethrower for the Tool Kit and focus on using Pistol + Shield.

I’m still looking for my preferred build. Since I do mostly WvW in this game, that is where it has to be good indeed.

My own style is always that of being supportive and more on the defensive side.
In terms of fighting that means I try to outlast my opponents.

I’ll start by my most effective build:
that’s a 30/0/30/0/10 build.
It lacks all sorts of things, but what it has is really usefull in WvW:
it has max range grenades, and it has healing bombs. And what’s more: both can benefit from the same traits and gear.
My grenades aren’t optimal since it’s a bit more power based than condition, but still they do fine.

Last slot is either a stunbreaker or an Elixir Gun if in a group (or a dungeon for that matter).
The Elixir gun just adds soooo much. Condition removal for the group, extra healing, escape, great against champions if you stumble upon the Grub…

Playstyle: bombarde with grenades if it’s far (on walls, incoming zerg, camp npc’s waiting, etc), and if it gets close: heal with bombs and still do great aoe damage.

My biggest issue with this build: it’s boring as hell since all 5 skills of either bomb or grenades just do the same.
No different animation, no different mechanic… Simply throw bombs, or drop bombs that have different effects on landing.

It can be fun, but it also can get stale.

What build am I working on?
Something more different in playstyle.
Phineas Phoe and me aren’t getting along today, but I do want to say I like his build above here very much (don’t reply, I’m being deliberately silly here)
It’s one of the true versatile builds we have I think: Flamethrower and Elixir Gun. He goes the powerfull route of Alchemy traits with it. Something I try to avoid since I don’t see my engineer as a character using energy drinks all day. Elixirs aren’t my cup of thea, but of course they are the best we have.

As boring as grenades can get for me, so much I like coated bullets for some reason.
Maybe it’s because I have my shield on me at that moment, who knows. I absolutely love my shield

So instead of going FT-EG as well, I am trying to create a build with healing turret (accelerated if possible, but 20 points is a high cost if not going explosives), Tool Kit for sheer fun factor, and coated bullets.
Haven’t decided on the rest yet.
I keep trying out stuff, and I used Flamethrower-Elixir Gun for a very long time in fact.

Long post, irrelevant rant… bottom line is:
you can go ‘effective’ or you can go ‘what is fun for me but still works somewhat’.
I often do the first, but I strongly recommend the second.

Engineers strength is independency. Roam around, defend something, catch up to big zerg fights. You can do everything so u should do everything. Because that’s much more powerful then any other role in wvw.

Apart from this, engineer is a great duelist: u can easly handle 1-3 enemies – with NPC help maybe more, especially playing HGH Grenades. But that fact just ends up in your multi role.

Come to think of it: permanent swiftness, be it by kit swapping, elixir B or what not… that might be the most usefull WvW thing we have as engineer

Thanks guys, these sound fun. I feel a little better now, just strange to see so few engineers and so many of everyone else (excluding necros). I don’t think I’ve even seen an engi commander in my server or with legendaries, just strikes you as a class not worth spending time on.

ATourist.8359:

Thanks guys, these sound fun. I feel a little better now, just strange to see so few engineers and so many of everyone else (excluding necros). I don’t think I’ve even seen an engi commander in my server or with legendaries, just strikes you as a class not worth spending time on.

Hah. You know. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen an Engineer Commander either. But I’ve seen every other profession as one – including necros and rangers.