Guild Wars 2

This is a theorycraft build at the moment. It’s basically a variation on the condition grenade builds that are out there. I think it’s ideal vs multiple targets, so I’ll call it a WvW build for the time being. Again, it’s theorycraft, so it probably won’t work well, if at all.

The basic premise of this build is that players have capitalized on many aspects of a good condition build: Condition Damage, Condition Duration, Might stacking, Procs on Crit, Precision. But I haven’t seen any Condition builds that take into account another dimension: opportunity to crit. To my knowledge, the Engineer may lead all classes in the number of white numbers you can get on your screen at one time (with the exception of classes using reflection abilities). That’s what this build is about. So we’re talking Grenades and Static Discharge and every possible proc on crit we can stack.

Explosives 30:
15% bleed from explosions, 33% burn on crit every 3 secs, Grenadier. This includes 25-pt trait 100% Vuln on explosion. Also includes 30% Condition Duration.
Firearms 25:
50% Vuln on crits, 20% longer burns. Includes 5-pt trait 30% chance to Bleed on crit and 25-pt trait 5% increased damage on bleeding. Also includes 250 Precision and Condition Damage.
Tools 15:
Static Discharge

Utilities: Med Kit, Grenade Kit, Surprise Shot (from the useless Rifle Turret), Utility Goggles/Analyze, Supply Crate
Alt: Tool Kit instead of Goggles.
Runes: the +27% Cond Duration suite of Superior Lyssa, Major Lyssa, and Superior Mad King on mix of Rabid and Rampagers.
Sigil: Earth (60% chance to bleed on crit every 2 seconds) and Corruption on Giver’s pistols.

So, I think the playstyle should be clear. Land as many possible proc-pportunities as possible. There are 2 different Fury sources to get: Medkit 5 and Analyze. After that, pick out your victims (plural) and press f2, f3, and f4 simultaneously. What will happen is Analyze will stick 10 Vulns on the primary target immediately. Then (counting the proc opportunities in parenthesis), Surprise Shot (1) and Grenade Barrage (40) will do their things. You’ll get 3 Static Discharges (9). If everything goes (impossibly) perfectly, you’ll have the opportunity to proc 50 times on a small crowd or 12 times on a 1v1 single target in the first 1/2 second, at the rates discussed above.

A lot of our procs have limits. Shrapnel and Steel-packed powder are Explosions only. Sigil of Earth has a 2 second cooldown and Incendiary Powder has a 3 second cooldown. But Sharpshooter and Precise Sights do not. They can proc constantly and from anything. They are the greatest beneficiaries of this build.

Obviously, I went with Surprise Shot and Analyze for their lack of casting times. Surprise Shot is pretty mandatory for it’s ridiculous cooldown speed. But Analyze can definitely be substituted out for Took Kit or Elixir S.mall or Elixir C.leanse, as you see fit.

While this build does not have the Might stacking of an HGH build, it does have a very high Vulnerability quotient to compensate for that. Keep in mind that 25 Vulnerabilities will raise your damage 25%. But furthermore, it will raise the damage output of all your team (WvW, sPvP, or PvE) 25% as well. In a dungeon, that’s like getting an extra guy. Your 5 man team will hit like a 6.25-man team.

Anyway, it’s late. And I’m sure this build won’t work anyway. So I thought I’d put it out there for discussion.

Wow, didn’t even think about using major runes of Lyssa for that extra 7%. The might stacking isn’t as important in the build, but the vulnerability stacking, as you said, is great, especially for a party.

If the idea is to get numbers up against large numbers of enemies, Incendiary Powder won’t do very much due to its cooldown. Personally I’d go with Short Fuse.
The same problem arises with Sigil of Earth. Agony (depending on rounding), Peril, or Battle (3 Might stacks = 10.5 Corruption stacks) may help more.

I’ve used quite near same build – mass bleed nade engi in spvp quite alot. Basicly a condition version of hundred nades, (I wouldnt take static discharge when you go condition stat as main!)

On your theorycraft tho, you are kinda going for the direct damage insta kill and condition at the same time, which I think is false approach. As the first one is not gonna happen with condition gear. But instead target will die to the upto 20+ bleeds you can stack solo. It’s quite insane.

There was one problem tho, I cannot recall exactly what trait, but something interfered with the procs. As in same internal cooldown. I noticed building upto 16 bleeds on target dummies, but just around 12 with some trait on. So you should keep eye on that if that is the case.
It was either 50% swiftness or 50% vurn proc crit that interfered with some bleed procs.

PWNcakesAndROFLs.8263:

Wow, didn’t even think about using major runes of Lyssa for that extra 7%. The might stacking isn’t as important in the build, but the vulnerability stacking, as you said, is great, especially for a party.

I’m starting to think that when it comes to PvE dungeons, Vulnerability application and maintenance is the real benefit of taking along an Engineer. Being able to maintain a 20-25 stack of Vulnerability should speed up a dungeon moreso than basically any other Engy build. With 5 people focus-firing, no boon or condition comes close to the effectiveness of Vulnerability.

So, the key things in a build would be Condition Duration and Steel-Packed Powder. Then, you’d probably also want to take Precise Sights. If you’ve got full Cond Duration, you probably can skip Analyze. But it’s there if you need it.

After that, you still have a lot of trait points and gear options. You would naturally be in a position to maximize Condition dealing. I think Rampagers would be a great option. Trait-wise, you could do whatever works best for you with the other ~30 trait points.

Destroyer.1306:

PWNcakesAndROFLs.8263:

Wow, didn’t even think about using major runes of Lyssa for that extra 7%. The might stacking isn’t as important in the build, but the vulnerability stacking, as you said, is great, especially for a party.

I’m starting to think that when it comes to PvE dungeons, Vulnerability application and maintenance is the real benefit of taking along an Engineer.

Yea I’d like to agree but haven’t got enough experience to make my opinion on this matter relevant. Though today I’ve played condition grenadier and I doubt it’s an illusion when it felt like every boss went down quite a bit faster, after all from a pure math point of view keeping up 20-25 stacks of vulnerability on its own (without other people spamming it obviously) is an insane boon to your team.