Guild Wars 2

Link to build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqelIqicX3SrF1LJxoCfO0D7ffDLSh+t8nC0F-TsAA1CtIuRdj7GzNybs3Ma40w8DA

After having a hard time finding a decent bunker build, I played around and created one that I found to be extremely effective. I just thought I would share it with the community to try out or share thoughts on.

INCOMING WALL OF TEXT
I went very descriptive into my reasoning behind everything

Build is 10/0/30/20/10

Edit for clarification: The reason I do not go full into Alchemy is because the minor grandmaster trait gives extra % damage for each boon on you, which is not worth the investment, and there really are no great traits left in the line that justify leaving out Accelerant-Packed Turrets or Kit Refinement.

This build excels at knocking players around and off cap points, with 3 forms of knockback and a long range pull. The survivability is great, and I often find myself in 1v2 or 1v3 situations, and can hold off until my team arrives. This build features 2 forms of block, 2 blinds (one that is an AOE), a stunbreaker, and lots of condition removal.

You will be sitting around 3075 armor and 2400 health.

Explosives
5 – Evasive Powder Keg
This is a decent minor trait, but your job is not to be dealing damage. However, the damage on dodge throws in a smidge of damage here and there, and is boosted with the Superior Rune of Energy we will be using on our shield, giving us another dodge roll when we swap back from kits.

V – Accelerant-Packed Turrets
This is an amazing bunker trait. Again, the damage from the trait is negligible, but the knockback is a great source of CC. The great thing about this is how it is packaged in to your heal. This trait can do so much, from peeling melee off you, to knocking players off a ledge, out of a node, etc.

Inventions
5 – Low Health Response System
This is also a decent minor trait. The only downside is that I find by the time you are caught at 25%, it is too little too late. It helps in those close fights when you need to regen immediately after, or when you are low and going for the stomp.

IV – Stabilized Armor ~ VI – Cloaking Device
This is kind of a personal choice trait. With stabilized armor, you get damage mitigation during knock downs, the trait has no CD, and it stacks with Protection Injection. However, with so many classes having an immobilize, I sometimes switch it up with Cloaking Device. The short stealth is amazing in that it gives you time to reassess the situation, and throw off your attacker.

15 – Automated Medical Response
This minor trait is fantastic. Upon reaching 25% hp, all of your healing skills recharge immediately. This includes your stun break from the elixir gun toolbelt skill, the healing mist from your Healing Turret toolbelt skill, and your Healing Turret itself.

VIII – Power Shoes
I cannot force myself to take any other trait in this tier. Movement speed is just too good. It helps you if you need to switch to another node, if you have died and need to return to your node, and just get around in general.

25 – Performance Enhancement
Not much to say here. Extra power is always nice, but in a build not meant to focus on damage, it doesn’t affect us much.

VII – Reinforced Shield
This is another great skill. The toughness it gives is sort of a bonus, but we are taking it for the reduced cooldowns on shield skills. Look to skill explanations for why this is important.

Alchemy
5 – Hidden Flask
A nice little boost, made even better by the fact it triggers so early in health depletion. Upon reaching 75%, you gain might, fury, retaliation, and swiftness. Retaliation is probably the best stat from the lot, but this trait can also be unfortunate. Some classes (necromancer or boon steal thief) have skills that do more damage based on how many boons you have. Watch out when facing these classes as to when this activates in the fight.

VI – Protection Injection
Amazing, amazing trait. Gain 3.5 sec of 33% reduced damage upon Stun, Daze, Knockdown, Knockback, Fear, and Launch. The trait is only on a 5 sec internal CD. This is a great trait to have when facing terror build necromancers, stunlock warriors, etc.

_15 – Transmute _
Nice little condition removal/boon applicator on a 15 sec cooldown. Extremely good for a minor trait.

IX – Backpack Regenerator ~ IV – Self Regulating Defense
This is kind of a toss up as well. Backpack regenerator is nice to have as we will have kits out a majority of play, and in situations where a fight has just ended, you can swap to a kit to start regenerating health immediately. However, with how many passive skills we have that activate around 25% health, Self Regulating Defense is a viable choice because it allows these skills to run their course, as well as give you a few seconds of OH kitten, to reassess the situation and maybe gobble up some bandages from supply crate.

Tools
5 – Adrenaline Pump
DO NOT FORGET ABOUT THIS. Most players don’t utilize this enough. If you need to dodge, but don’t quite have enough endurance, throw your wrench or use one of your healing toolbelt skills. Great for a little boost to endurance.

IV – Kit Refinement
Fire Shield, Glue trail, and Superspeed are effects we will gain from this trait.
Fire shield is a nice little might stacker, and causes burn on attackers as well.
Glue trail is a great immobilize, gives you time to break from melee and heal up.
Superspeed is not a significant effect, but if you are running to a node and need a little boost, it works great.

Runes
I use Runes of Dwayna. This is a personal choice, they could be swapped out for Melandru or another defensive rune, but I find the extra healing from the runes unsurpassed. It also meshes with team play very well, as it will grant near allies regeneration.

Sigils
Pistol – Sigil of Life
The great thing about playing bunker is that you should rarely die. When you see an incoming, call it out and let your teammates come and do the killing while you distract that thief who is wondering why his 2222222222 spam isn’t downing you. This let’s you easily rack up the stacks from this sigil, giving you a nice bonus to healing power.

Shield – Sigil of Energy
When you swap back to your weapon set from kits, this will activate the sigil, giving you another dodge roll on an ICD of 9 seconds. This is a phenomenal sigil.

Accessories
Soldier’s Amulet
Again, this is personal preference. I enjoy the vitality from Soldier’s amulet. The toughness is also great, but the power is negligible. You could swap this out for Cleric’s for healing power, but I find the vitality loss to be too much.

Skills
Pistol – Noteworthy Skills
1 – Auto Attack -The pistol is an all around great weapon, but as a mentioned, dps is not your job. However, the autoattack has a respectable range, and explodes at the end of its travel. If you find an enemy with low health trying to hide behind an object until they can regenerate, spam your autoattack. It will hit them on the explosion and keep them in combat.

2 – Poison Dart Volley - Poison dart volley is a little disappointing in that all the shots are not a guaranteed hit. However, I have yet to miss ALL shots on a target, making this a great skill for quick condition application to keep an enemy in combat or to reduce healing on a regen warrior, guardian, or downed player.

3 – Static Shot - Static shot is my favorite skill to spam. Travels quick? Check. Blinds enemies? Check. Quick applications of confusion? Check. All around great skill.

Shield – Noteworthy Skills
4 – Magnetic shield – is an awesome defensive skill. Use it as a reflect against a ranger or pistol thief shooting at you from off point, or use it as a knockback to peel melee or clear your node. Also use it as a blast finisher on your healing turret.
NOTE – Mesmer great sword auto attack does not seem to be reflected by this skill

5 – Static Shield 1.5 sec block, also stuns nearby enemies for 1 second if triggered. The secondary effect of the skill dazes foes, so use it to interrupt healing or obvious choreographed skills.

Tool Kit Skills
1 Negligible
2 Box of Nails - Great for dropping on node if you are waiting for other skills to be off cooldown. Bleeds and cripples.
3 Pry Bar - Applies 5 stacks of confusion. I usually combo this with Static shot to quickly apply lots of confusion to an enemy.
4 Gear Shield - One of the best blocks in the game, take absolutely no damage for 3 seconds.
5 Magnet - One of the best skills in the game IMO. Use magnet pull to drag an enemy out of position, off ledges, into the broken glass on Skyhammer, etc. Usually follow this up with Pry Bar.

Elixir Gun Skills
1 Tranq Dart * Not the strongest auto attack, but great for stacking quick bleeds and weakness.
*2 Elixir F - Grants swiftness to you and allies, and cripples opponents. Decent skill.
3 Fumigate - Probably the best skill from elixir gun, this sprays in a cone and removes conditions from allies as well as poisoning and applying vulnerability to enemies.
4 Acid Bomb - Use this as a gap closer, or combo it with Super Elixir for retaliation.
5 Super Elixir - One of the reasons to take elixir gun, heals on impact then a great heal on pulse afterwards.

Flame Thrower
I am only going to mention the last 3 skills of flame thrower,
3 Air Blast - Great knockback on a short cooldown, also applies burning.
4 Napalm - Applies burning to foes that pass through, also gives allies a field to use
5 Smoke Vent - 180 radius blind, great to avoid burst or also used for stomping
NOTE – You can start the stomp, then switch to FT and use #5, all while still channeling the stomp.

ELITE SKILL
Supply Crate -
One of the best elites in the game, this will stun enemies for 2 seconds on drop (also a Blast Finisher), then continue to be a pain in their kitten after. Net shot applies almost as soon as it drops, and will help make distance as the fight continues. Bandages are a GREAT heal, don’t underestimate them. I usually switch to tool kit after using Supply Crate, then collect the bandages while using Gear Shield.

TOOL BELT SKILLS
Regenerating Mist from Healing Turret. Nice little heal, stacks regeneration. Water Combo Field

Healing Mist from Elixir Gun. STUNBREAKER – heal is pretty small

Throw wrench to gain endurance for dodge rolls

Incindiary Ammo – use in conjunction with Poison dart volley, static discharge, and pistol auto attack to quickly apply conditions, to mitigate a warriors regeneration, etc.

MISC
Combos
Healing turret >Cleansing Burst > Magnetic Shield > Detonate Healing Turret > Regenerating Mist
basic healing combo

Box of Nails > Magnet > Pry Bar > Static Shot > Magnetic Shield
to apply quick stacks of confusion, bleeding, immobilize, then send them back on their way

Magnetic Shield > Magnet > Pry Bar > Vent Air
_sometimes I just like to kitten people off. knock them back, pull them in, and knock them back again. pry bar for extra kitten-baggery

Supply Crate > Box of Nails > Gear Shield > Static Shield
box of nails to slow down melees on you, use both shields while collecting bandages from supply crate

for rune set
3x dwayna + 3x of the flock
+10 heal and a bird to help some time

It´s amazing how bunker-ish builds with the same utilities can be so different.
I also use tk, ft and eg but my Traits are 0/0/20/30/20 with no big surprises like “Kit Refinement” build in.

Your build definitely inspired me to try Accelerant Packed turrets in my build.
I´ve been in love with the trait for a long time now but somehow never used it in a serious build

Cero.5132:

It´s amazing how bunker-ish builds with the same utilities can be so different.
I also use tk, ft and eg but my Traits are 0/0/20/30/20 with no big surprises like “Kit Refinement” build in.

Your build definitely inspired me to try Accelerant Packed turrets in my build.
I´ve been in love with the trait for a long time now but somehow never used it in a serious build

Definitely give it a try. It’s another knockback on a short 20 second cooldown, tied in with your heal. Would love to hear some feedback on how other’s like the build

I like your build. It’s probably up there with other decent bunker builds I have seen and tried. However, engineer as bunker at the moment has some real challenges.

I would imagine you will be able to outlast most necros, thieves, and rangers and probably exclude them from the node.

Bunker Guardians you will likely stalemate on. Neither of you will hurt the other and your knockback will be countered by his blocks and stability.

Warriors will be a challenge. You’ll likely survive if you are lucky, but it will be hard work. Their CC is stupid and of course they have no worries about health with the definitely-does-not-need-nerfing-warriors-“are-in-a-good-place-right-now”-healing-signet. You will not be able to exclude them enough to cap a node due to their high stability uptime and it is possible they will have you running around so much you’ll concede it to them.

Mesmers and elementalists are your real problem. On the right build, either one of them can kill you with very little chance you will stop them. Eles have an attack chain that applies so much damage so quickly, you die before you can react. Only good eles with the right build can do it – I reckon I meet about 1 ele in 20 who can do this.

Mesmers can keep you dazed for 2-3 seconds and in that time take your health from max to zero. They can’t do it every time, because it depends on damage from their illusions, but they do it often, and I meet about 1 in 3 mesmers now doing this attack chain.

A few weeks ago, I would have said you are mad for not including Automated Response in your build. However, despite not seeing anything in the patch notes to suggest it is worse, it feels to me like it is way less effective than it used to be.

Also, having only one stun break and no immobilise escape (rocket boots) would make me feel vulnerable on a bunker spec, but you can’t have everything, I suppose.

Just out of interest, does the super speed from kit refinement act as a stun break? The one on slick shoes toolbelt does.

To be frank, after playing a bunker engi for most of my time in game since launch, I no longer find them viable enough.

Cribbage.2056:

I like your build. It’s probably up there with other decent bunker builds I have seen and tried. However, engineer as bunker at the moment has some real challenges.

I would imagine you will be able to outlast most necros, thieves, and rangers and probably exclude them from the node.

Bunker Guardians you will likely stalemate on. Neither of you will hurt the other and your knockback will be countered by his blocks and stability.

Warriors will be a challenge. You’ll likely survive if you are lucky, but it will be hard work. Their CC is stupid and of course they have no worries about health with the definitely-does-not-need-nerfing-warriors-“are-in-a-good-place-right-now”-healing-signet. You will not be able to exclude them enough to cap a node due to their high stability uptime and it is possible they will have you running around so much you’ll concede it to them.

Mesmers and elementalists are your real problem. On the right build, either one of them can kill you with very little chance you will stop them. Eles have an attack chain that applies so much damage so quickly, you die before you can react. Only good eles with the right build can do it – I reckon I meet about 1 ele in 20 who can do this.

Mesmers can keep you dazed for 2-3 seconds and in that time take your health from max to zero. They can’t do it every time, because it depends on damage from their illusions, but they do it often, and I meet about 1 in 3 mesmers now doing this attack chain.

A few weeks ago, I would have said you are mad for not including Automated Response in your build. However, despite not seeing anything in the patch notes to suggest it is worse, it feels to me like it is way less effective than it used to be.

Also, having only one stun break and no immobilise escape (rocket boots) would make me feel vulnerable on a bunker spec, but you can’t have everything, I suppose.

Just out of interest, does the super speed from kit refinement act as a stun break? The one on slick shoes toolbelt does.

To be frank, after playing a bunker engi for most of my time in game since launch, I no longer find them viable enough.

Yes, I mostly found (bunker) Guardians and Warriors (but who doesn’t) gave me the most trouble. Elementalists have actually yet to pose a threat to me. That isn’t to say that they won’t, but apparently I haven’t gone against a competent Ele yet. Mesmers could be a nuisance, but I can normally outheal their damage.

I have not gotten the chance to try out SuperSpeed as a stunbreaker yet. Tooltip does not list it as one, but that’s not to say it isn’t. I use it more for a speed boost when running between or back to my node.

I partially agree with your last statement. I feel bunker Engi can leave much to be desired, but its a fluid gameplay style that if played right can hold off multiple enemies until your team arrives. It’s disappointing, because a regen warrior can bunker just as well but still do massive damage.

Soldier amulet over Cleric?

Here’s my variant of a bunker build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqelIqicX3ynF17IRoH2/+qVkC9b5PKkbaB-TsAgzCtIuRtjbHzNyusdNa40w8DA

I take a Cleric’s amulet with a soldier jewel (Jewel for a little extra health and power)

I didn’t bother swapping out the sigils, but you can change the sigil of life to something like +5% damage if you really want, it’s not too important

This build relies on spamming bomb abilities while standing in super elixir for max healing (over 1k hp/sec), though you can also just tool kit #4 while standing in super elixir to stall your opponents while your team arrives. Not so heavy on the knockbacks in this, but I personally find bomb kit to be too good to give up to flamethrower, and bomb range/cd is too important to get a trait that will only work every 20 seconds for 1 extra knockback.

I take a mix of 3 different rune types so I can keep protection at an almost 100% uptime if CC chained, on top of the 20% decreased damage while CC’d meaning 53% total damage decrease to tell those warriors to kitten themselves.

100% regen uptime, 25% faster move speed at all times (not perma swift, but oh well), fantastic regen and aoe healing, can give allies good regen durations/condi cleanses (don’t forget about elixir gun #3!!!!), smoke bomb is too OP

Really, your biggest weaknesses have already been mentioned. Ele, mesmer, warrior, and SOMETIMES thief.

Oh, and btw, the map with the capture point underwater….you should NEVER lose that capture point with this build lol, bomb autos are faster underwater (the same bug that used to happen with grenades, but they never fixed the bombs), so you have HUGE regen/aoe damage/aoe control while underwater. The extra bit of power in this build goes great with harpoon gun #2 for finishing someone off.

Phineas Poe.3018:

Soldier amulet over Cleric?

As explained above if you read, I said personal choice. I enjoy the vitality it gives, but you can do either.

cat.8975:

Here’s my variant of a bunker build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqelIqicX3ynF17IRoH2/+qVkC9b5PKkbaB-TsAgzCtIuRtjbHzNyusdNa40w8DA

I take a Cleric’s amulet with a soldier jewel (Jewel for a little extra health and power)

I didn’t bother swapping out the sigils, but you can change the sigil of life to something like +5% damage if you really want, it’s not too important

This build relies on spamming bomb abilities while standing in super elixir for max healing (over 1k hp/sec), though you can also just tool kit #4 while standing in super elixir to stall your opponents while your team arrives. Not so heavy on the knockbacks in this, but I personally find bomb kit to be too good to give up to flamethrower, and bomb range/cd is too important to get a trait that will only work every 20 seconds for 1 extra knockback.

I take a mix of 3 different rune types so I can keep protection at an almost 100% uptime if CC chained, on top of the 20% decreased damage while CC’d meaning 53% total damage decrease to tell those warriors to kitten themselves.

100% regen uptime, 25% faster move speed at all times (not perma swift, but oh well), fantastic regen and aoe healing, can give allies good regen durations/condi cleanses (don’t forget about elixir gun #3!!!!), smoke bomb is too OP

Really, your biggest weaknesses have already been mentioned. Ele, mesmer, warrior, and SOMETIMES thief.

Oh, and btw, the map with the capture point underwater….you should NEVER lose that capture point with this build lol, bomb autos are faster underwater (the same bug that used to happen with grenades, but they never fixed the bombs), so you have HUGE regen/aoe damage/aoe control while underwater. The extra bit of power in this build goes great with harpoon gun #2 for finishing someone off.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t enjoy bomb kit in PvP at all. It can be alright for holding a point, where they have to be on the point to cap and thus in range of your bombs, but otherwise they can just kite you all day.

connieboy.9840:

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t enjoy bomb kit in PvP at all. It can be alright for holding a point, where they have to be on the point to cap and thus in range of your bombs, but otherwise they can just kite you all day.

That’s the point of a bunker build, though. You’re supposed to sit on a capture point and zone them out of it forever.

I like the build. A couple of thoughts:

—movement speed bonuses don’t stack past 33%. You really don’t want to use power shoes and speedy kits at the same time, because it’s no faster than just speedy kits.
—the shield trait won’t give a toughness bonus while you’re using a kit. You might decide you want to use the trait just for the reduced cooldown, but consider that you won’t get much use out of the extra toughness. Protective shield is a really good trait.
—with healing turret and elixir gun, you’ll probably have the regen boon up pretty much permanently. You might want to consider runes of the forge or melandru instead of dwayna.
—you should definitely at least try the build with cleric’s or settler’s amulet. Remember that you can customize your jewel, so you could use cleric’s amulet with soldier’s jewel or at least put a cleric’s jewel in your soldier’s amulet. You might like the way settler’s plays as well, it’s an insane armor rating.

Good luck!

this is by far not the most bunkerish engi spec : D

you can check my stream build collection for the actual spec

XerreX.7196:

this is by far not the most bunkerish engi spec : D

you can check my stream build collection for the actual spec

I can appreciate that you desire to bring more to your stream, but why didn’t you just put it in your post so that they do not have to search for the build?

NevirSayDie.6235:

I like the build. A couple of thoughts:

—movement speed bonuses don’t stack past 33%. You really don’t want to use power shoes and speedy kits at the same time, because it’s no faster than just speedy kits.
—the shield trait won’t give a toughness bonus while you’re using a kit. You might decide you want to use the trait just for the reduced cooldown, but consider that you won’t get much use out of the extra toughness. Protective shield is a really good trait.
—with healing turret and elixir gun, you’ll probably have the regen boon up pretty much permanently. You might want to consider runes of the forge or melandru instead of dwayna.
—you should definitely at least try the build with cleric’s or settler’s amulet. Remember that you can customize your jewel, so you could use cleric’s amulet with soldier’s jewel or at least put a cleric’s jewel in your soldier’s amulet. You might like the way settler’s plays as well, it’s an insane armor rating.

Good luck!

I don’t use both speed modifiers. I only use Power Shoes. The 10 in inventions is for Kit Refinement.

XerreX.7196:

this is by far not the most bunkerish engi spec : D

you can check my stream build collection for the actual spec

Never stated this was the “most bunkerish” spec. In fact, there probably is no single defined “actual spec” for absolute best results, it will depend on a person’s comfort with the build and their playstyle. I just wrote up my build for those looking for a bunker build because I feel it performs well and there isn’t an abundance of bunker builds written up on the forums for people to check out.

I pretty much agree with everything NevirSayDie said. I run a similar tanky build with clerics amulet and meladru runes. keeping in mind that the engie doesn’t have much condi cleanse I run a 10/0/20/30/10 build with X in alchemy for the extra condi cleanse on my elixir R. The melandru runes help a lot as well. I would really recommend running elixir R for any tanky engie build, it can double your tanky-ness with one spell and adding a condi cleanse on it really helps. Just for preference I like running rifle turret, with a short CD the knock back and blast finisher with water field helps a lot. I like your build though, I think I’ll change my build with yours in mind ^^

STOP SHARING THE ENGI BUNKER BUILD WAAAAGGGHHHH
Its so kitten annoying to go up against one of these types. Theyre too kitten confident running around with their kits, CCing / regening to death while slowly widdling my hp down. Its just not fair. Stahp.

Stand The Wall.6987:

STOP SHARING THE ENGI BUNKER BUILD WAAAAGGGHHHH
Its so kitten annoying to go up against one of these types. Theyre too kitten confident running around with their kits, CCing / regening to death while slowly widdling my hp down. Its just not fair. Stahp.

LOL and I was getting ready to share my own bunker build too :P

EVERLASTING ENGINEER
until conditions.

Sometimes I think these engi bunker types don’t take our battles seriously which worries me about the status of our relationship.

Accelerant Packed Turrets just for Supply Crate? Just goes to show I don’t PvP. Never woulda thought to do that.

As a new engi I still struggle with figuring out when and how to use different kits. Any general guidance for a build like this, which is something I might want to run when I get better?

The elixir gun in particular is a bit of a mystery to me, I’m not sure how to take good advantage of it.

Thanks for any tips.

Oh Elixir Gun is a fantastic support kit. It has a 50% uptime healing field, a blast finisher, aoe condition cleanse, and can even dish out some useful team support conditions like weakness, cripple, and poison. Plus, its toolbelt is a stun breaker with aoe regen.

It can fit into just about any build.

I am very curious. I will try this after work

Seras.5702:

Oh Elixir Gun is a fantastic support kit. It has a 50% uptime healing field, a blast finisher, aoe condition cleanse, and can even dish out some useful team support conditions like weakness, cripple, and poison. Plus, its toolbelt is a stun breaker with aoe regen.

It can fit into just about any build.

I believe it. I’m just not sure how to best handle the changes among the various kits and skills. Are there any guidelines or is it just a matter of rotating to items off cooldown and learning in time when you need what?

Seras.5702:

Accelerant Packed Turrets just for Supply Crate? Just goes to show I don’t PvP. Never woulda thought to do that.

Accelerant Packed Turrets is used on Healing Turret, your main heal.

Lightsbane.9012:

EVERLASTING ENGINEER
until conditions.

Cleanse from Healing Turret
15 point Minor trait in Alchemy
Super Elixir

That’s more than most classes out there already, but you can freely switch out Kit Refinement and go 30 into Alchemy for Automated Response.

But thanks for the constructive feedback.