Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow engineers.
The reason I made an engie not long ago was to be able to use rifles in this game. I thought it would be a much more interesting profession than a warrior. (plus I already have a guardian to hack and slash in melee).

However, after many attempts of using rifle build strategies during leveling, I was sorely disappointed by their lack of damage and mixed utility (they are not excelling at either range, mid or close combat). Considering the fact that I often swap to a bomb kit to get out of melee fights, the role of the main hand rifle feels even more diminished.

In short, all my attempts at making a decent rifle build have failed because it felt so underpowered (and it’s utility did not make up for the petty damage).

Recently I was lucky to get a “Charrzooka” rifle drop doing fractals (I know, totally unexpected). And now I’m really confused if I should soulbind it to my engineer or sell the rifle (no, I’m not rolling a warrior any time soon).

Is there a rifle build that is good for general PvE + Dungeons? Or should I just sell the ‘charrzooka’ and forget about wasting it on an engineer?

PS: Do you think elixirs make the best combination with rifles? Something like explosives (20)/ firearms (30) / alchemy (20)?

Your perspective of the rifle sounds skewed, perhaps it is due to low level and inefficiency. The rifle is probably the hardest hitting attack set, next to ’nades and bombs, that the Engineer has currently. Due to stats not applying to kits, exotic rifles hit pretty darn hard in comparison to our other kits, especially with Berserker stats it really shows. Rifle is also an excellent utility skill-set that can compliment any Vulnerability set-up with traits such as Sitting Duck and precise sites along with the #5 Goomba-stomp that can provide excellent support for your party, as well as maintaining decent dps.

Personally, I love the Charrzooka it’s silly and over-sized, which suits the Engi and their quirky skills. Selling it however, will give you a nice ~25g to sit on to maybe invest in better gear or what-not.

I went to the mists and tried a build in max exotic gear. Full power, precision (49% crit chance) and I was doing 550 dmg (850 crit) to heavy golems.
I had about 2000 armor which is probably the definition of glass cannon.

But this still seems quite weak compared to other classes.

I don’t know. I’m going to test it some more in the mist. Hope I can find a balance with it, because I don’t like it right now.

Silver Chopper.4506:

I went to the mists and tried a build in max exotic gear. Full power, precision (49% crit chance) and I was doing 550 dmg (850 crit) to heavy golems.
I had about 2000 armor which is probably the definition of glass cannon.

But this still seems quite weak compared to other classes.

I don’t know. I’m going to test it some more in the mist. Hope I can find a balance with it, because I don’t like it right now.

On my engineer i do mostly wvw and i get a 1.5 to 2k auto attack on my rifle with a 5k jumpshot. I have 48% crit chance and around 19k health. Just need to put more into crit damage and pick traits in that boost presicion and crit damage. Try looking up some of the static discharge rifle builds here on the forums, the burst you can put out hits like a truck.

I use the charzooka (drop off jormag claw ice elemental) on my engineer when I am not using my main kit weapon. Rifle is a viable weapon in many builds.

@ elitegamerz – I play mostly PvE on engineer. And targets seem to have higher armor there. (in dungeons, at least). Can you balance out some survivability and hit above 1k crit?

@ Medazolam – what utilities do you use? how many points do you have in firearms?

thanks

You’d probably be better off selling it, some people really like the skin, a lot of people think its butt-ugly, the bullet looks tiny compare to the gun, comes out of the wrong point due to its size, and the clipping is horrendus with armor and ground(half the gun goes underground imbetween shots, attempts to eat your feet when running, and looks like a see-saw when 4 legged running on charr), but thats just my opinion, if you like how it looks thats fine, but moolah is nice too.

I really like how it looks. But I also hate clipping.

Find someone that has it, tag along with them for an hour or longer in WvW or whatever and decide if you can handle the amount of clipping before you force it into marriage with your hands. Clipping is the Chaarzookas best friend, in fact the Chaarzooka likes to get dirty with the dirt so your friends a friend with you enemy unfortunately.

Silver Chopper.4506:

@ elitegamerz – I play mostly PvE on engineer. And targets seem to have higher armor there. (in dungeons, at least). Can you balance out some survivability and hit above 1k crit?

@ Medazolam – what utilities do you use? how many points do you have in firearms?

thanks

Currently I run a 30/10/0/10/20 build and get 1200-1500 crits pretty reliably. I have all zerker accessories/jewelry and PTV armor and back piece. I have just over 20k health am very hard to kill given I use elixir s and toolkit. Grenades out dps the rifle when used well and bombs can crit well over 2k. Try static discharge with the rifle too, you will see a good spike in damage. Also go for straight damage sigils like force with the +5% increase in damage. If you have lots of moolah then grab runes of the scholar or ogre for an even larger damage buff

my biggest gripe with rifles is that unless you are fighting something that will close to melee (or that you can close to them), it is <i>so dull!</i>. 1 attack and net shot…. everything else is either gap closer or close range.

There is just so little to do with it that I prefer the more dynamic and exciting p/s or the various kits that are fun in both long and short range.

I think the engineers rifle is an okay damage and cc weapon.
Your suggested build (in your PS) is okay, buuut….
I dont like elixiers, so I dont really bother with them x) (so much rng ._.)
But you´re close to the build I play and love.
I use 20/10/0/20/20 and sometimes 20/20/0/20/10. Enhanced Performance in Explosives (together with runes of altruism and sigil of battle decent mightstacking) and in tools SD…. I love SD But SD with elixiers is a bit bugged >.< .

And the skin… well I dont like the Charrzooka x) But it´s good money if you sell it and it´s likely that everyone willl look at you when you choose to use it xP

OK. I’ve decided to give rifle another chance once I hit 80. But I will be using a simple rare rifle until I get my bearings. Because testing builds on dummy golems is far from optimal.

If I still don’t like the rifle builds then I’m selling the ‘charrzooka’.

Right now I run a pistol/pistol build that does the job with bomb kit for aoe melee. This build is geared for PvE and it packs a bit of survivability through 2400 armor and the quick reloading F1 heal. I use cripple + blowout to dance around 1-2 mobs and bombkit’s blind + confusion to take out 3-5 melee mobs.
(copy/paste: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcIQJAqal0pCtX8ynF17IxIFkuzgeo38y3PKkbaB;T0AZVCokUpuSZF1UmpETZnyNlcqxCTCA)

So the rifle has to best that combination.

Note that I generally dislike glass cannon builds because they are weak in tight places or dungeons.