Guild Wars 2

MikeT.9428:

Cleaning formula 409 traited (X in Alchemy line), 2 elixirs slotted and two in your tool belt make conditions not that much of an issue. Especially if you also have automated response traited (XII in Alchemy line) your only deaths should come from being completely outnumbered…or death to falling…as we’ve witnessed in Tankcat’s video, far too many good soldiers are lost this way.

Yep! Condition removing goodness. Now if only Automated Response cleaned all conditions on you when it applied. Would that be too op? :<

Thank you tankcat! I love spvp and before watching your vid awhile back I was trying every condition based, rifle based, crit based build I could think of. I put my own flavor on this build (just a few dif traits/runes[spvp free runes rock]) and it kicks kitten hardcore. Nothing like watching a thief press 22222 just to find out you put your block up and his initiative was wasted for nothing, RETREAT! I’m generally always in the top 5 of the list with this build. I just wish the confuse damage was the same as in wvw :P but that would be too OP of course with this build! haha

I’ve also gotten into a habit of shouting “Tiny dunk!” every odd time I elixer stomp someone…. It’s just great

I can almost see the haters… “Stupid tiny dunk engis!!!”

Still trying to get a “Giant dunk!” in but it’s very hard

Cheers bud!

I’m seeing a few mixed replies about this build with respect to sPvP. How does it fare with the lower Confusion damage?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQJAqelIqic3zyuF17IxIFfuzhUgfDL6R+rs+B;TkAqeM9I6x2jrHZPjNObMbA

I’ve used this similar type of bunker play style since September – similar to tankcat.

I’ve used this build in wvw, dungeons, pve, and spvp. Consists of Pistol and Shield, Healing Turret or Med Kit, Tool Kit, Bomb Kit, Elixir Gun and Supply Crate.

Super Elixir – tested with sigil of superior life with 25 stacks ticks 6320 health in 10 seconds and with kit refinement ticks another 6320 health. If you stack two super elixirs at same time you’re getting 12640 and with impact heal its 1264 – its over 13904 health in 10 seconds. [Also to note the skill tip on super elixir is either incorrect or bugged] This is awesome healing for dungeons, general pve and pvp.

Healing Turret – Usually heals over 7000 health every 20 seconds or 15 seconds if you pick up. If you detonate the healing turret with water combo, its another 1300 health. In addition with superior rune of the flock heals another 1200 each time you use your healing skill. Combine healing comes around 95000 every 20 seconds. I didn’t even include regeneration boon included by healing turret [10.5 seconds of 3100 healing , which is another 300 per second. In addition you have healing mist, regeneration mist, cleansing burst at your disposal. Burst healing with allies around 2500 with regen boon

Healing Power in engineer stacks very well, not like other professions.

Cleansing Burst – When you’re stacked with many conditions, this is when I tend to use it.

Superior Rune of the Flock – heals 1200 each time you use your healing skill [10 second cool down] and its super cheap in TP. 10% chance to summon bird to that blind foe for 5 seconds.

Gear Shield is amazing – I wouldn’t be surprised if they bump up the recharge and with 3 seconds of block attacks. Great for preventing burst damage or oncoming damage when you’re trying to run back to the tower.

Magnet – Simply awesome when you can pull people from towers or pull them to your big ol bomb or pull when someone is trying to run away.

The most unrated value about engineer – variations of combos and blast finishers. Area stealth, 9-12 stacks of area might, Area Retaliation with big ol bomb and detonating healing turret, supply crate, magnetic inversion

Pro – Great tanking and healing abilities and condition removal, great support player, great at bunking certain spvp nodes, variations of combos and 3 blast finishers, laugh at thieves failing to burst you down. 100% up time of swiftness and vigor.

Con – Lack of overall damage and condition damage, 1 vs 1 usually turns to stalemate , average health, low crit. In spvp, playing as a bunker, you can’t kill stuff.

I haven’t used tank cats build, but I see the differences from watching the video. he has 10 seconds if invulnerability due to elixir s, and his use of superior rune of the doylak, few differences of traits and his use of soldier/knights accessories. I’ve mostly used cleric accessories and weapons. High power with high toughness and healing power.

Also to note, I don’t really play this bunker style as often, I’ve becoming more aligned with balance stats . I still have high survival skills, but not like as bunker. So far I’m having good results, but I’m, able to kill stuff solo in wvw. I still need to transmute other gear from dungeons to get the stats I want, it’ll probably take few weeks.

TLDR – Great support build, but don’t expect to kill stuff.

Maullus.1273:

I’m seeing a few mixed replies about this build with respect to sPvP. How does it fare with the lower Confusion damage?

Its not very good. Might as well take another kit since all you can do with this build is to tank otherwise and you still lack any sort of support. It is rather hard to kill you but you won’t kill someone unless they are ultra glass cannon and you hit them perfectly. Running a build like this with a bomb kit might be good but you do lack some of the traits.
you won’t do much when its 2v2 because as soon as they see you are spec to tank, they will kill your partner, you won’t have enough control to stop them.

Well now I know what it’s like to 1v1 another defensive spec with this build. I dueled a Mesmer last night in WvW. The fight went on for about 10 minutes before another member from my server came along and finished him off. We were both low health many times over the course of the fight, and it looked like I was gaining on him towards the end, but it felt more like we were dancing than trying to kill each other. The fight may have gone on forever if another didn’t come along.

I love the survivability of the build, but the damage output just isn’t there for me. Thanks for the build though Nisha. I did have a lot of fun messing with people with it and now that I have the gear together I can run it when I get tired of lobbing Grenades.

I must thank you with coming up with a fun build. Had a blast in WvW not too long ago. Too bad two of the minidunks were not completed with the foe disconnecting quickly.

Just wanted to thank you for this build. I retooled my rifle charr engie to this after weeks of frustration in the Ruins of Orr and now have been able to stay up- mostly- against those annoying dozen chaining chilling stunning mobs….mostly. Cheers and again thanks for the build. Prybar to your face risen!!!!

You’ve created the first GW2 video that actually made me laugh. And it was still pretty awesome, too. Thank you.

So with new patch sigils come in. Which sigs u suggest for this?

I ran into a few engineers running this build in WvW on my alt thief and whilst they were tough to kill, their actions were fairly predictable and there was no way I was going to confuse/retaliate my self to death.

For a variation on this build (same skills), I tried 10/10/20/10/20 with full rabid armor and rampager weapons. Damage is mainly dealt through bleeding/poison with the pistol but you still have magnetic and gear shield for defense. Also pulling people with the tool kit is really fun and confusion deals 925 damage. It’s a different play style and you certainly can’t go 1v4 but people who want to use tool kit but aren’t getting loot bags in WvW should give it a shot.

lithiumwing.5493:

I must thank you with coming up with a fun build. Had a blast in WvW not too long ago. Too bad two of the minidunks were not completed with the foe disconnecting quickly.

Haha, that happens somewhat often. I think people are starting to get frustrated at the tougher engineers running around.

ikiturso.4026:

So with new patch sigils come in. Which sigs u suggest for this?

I haven’t looked too much into Sigils since I never really cared about them (since they didn’t work) So i’m just now starting to research some ones that would synergize well. Like Grackleflint said on the first page of the thread, Hydromancy seems like a good choice. I currently just use Sigil of Restoration due to how much finishing i’m doing, but the sky’s the limit, etc etc!

Czar Peter.7961:

I ran into a few engineers running this build in WvW on my alt thief and whilst they were tough to kill, their actions were fairly predictable and there was no way I was going to confuse/retaliate my self to death.

For a variation on this build (same skills), I tried 10/10/20/10/20 with full rabid armor and rampager weapons. Damage is mainly dealt through bleeding/poison with the pistol but you still have magnetic and gear shield for defense. Also pulling people with the tool kit is really fun and confusion deals 925 damage. It’s a different play style and you certainly can’t go 1v4 but people who want to use tool kit but aren’t getting loot bags in WvW should give it a shot.

The predictability may be that the players may still be learning the ropes of the build. I yearn for the day of Condition Damage/Vit/Toughness armor! Though i’m glad to hear a condition oriented build is working for you. :>

First of all, I am GODLY SICK of cathuggers on the internet.
Second, your build lacks heals. Elixir gun should for all intents and purposes replace Elixir S.
BUT, I enjoy the tool kit part and it’s now part of my Megagineer build that you can find on this board. Thanks for that tip.

By the way, I am experimenting with a classic flamethrower 0/30/0/30/10 build running ft, toolkit, elixS or elixC or netT, double pistols, and making sure to itemize for toughness and vitality. It plays like an AoE tankcat, and it’s terribly amusing. I’ve actually had substantial success (although its much harder to use than tankcat because you need to know exactly how to use pistols vs flamethrower).

If sigils start working with toolkit and flamethrower at the patch, these types of builds will suddenly become very popular in WvW, and Tankcat will become even better. I can’t wait.

Oxstar.7643:

Second, your build lacks heals. Elixir gun should for all intents and purposes replace Elixir S.

You could make that argument. I find Elixir S and medkit has saved me too many times against zergs that tend to show up. Elixir gun is a great option with the toolbelt heal but I’d only use it if I played WvW during off hours where zergs were a little less common. Or had a good group to run with regularly. For solo play I think Elixir S is better but everyone’s situation may be different than mine.

mischwoof.9785:

When do would use your burst while playing other classes? Some bursts used on below 50% health, some depended on the range.

Most people tend to blow their burst all at once whenever they initiate, to try and establish a huge advantage in their favor. I call these people sheep, and they are delicious.

Smart players will sit on their cooldowns and blow them when you’ve exhausted your defensive skills/ dodges. This is the kind of player you have to play a mental battle with.

I personally assume that if a player i’m attacking dodges twice, then they’re spent, and it’s a good time to try and land some burst.

engi’ve got so much skills…and i never had one rotation burst for everyone…

by the way i’ve tried your build and understood that is not for me….) It’s great but not for me bombs, greandes, shrink yourself, lots of vitality and other stuff – that’s mine…..and i love tool kit too, but it not fits to set that i have now =(

Laserbolt.6731:

I play sPvP.

Changed my engineer to this build to try it out.

The prybar confusion does not seem all that powerful in sPvP for me. I pop Elixir B and have my retaliation and hit with the prybar and wait for them to destroy themselves, as you say. But it does not seem to happen.

I see warriors hitting themselves for 215 points with my confusion. Takes a lot of those to whittle away 28000 hit points.

FOUND THE PROBLEM

From the Guild Wars Wiki:

“Confusion deals different damage in PvE/WvWvW than in sPvP.

In PvE and WvWvW, its damage is given by:

10 + (1.5 * Level) + (0.15 * Condition Damage) per stack per skill use

In sPvP, its damage is half as much, or:

65 + (0.075 * Condition Damage) per stack per skill use"

yes, confusion works different in spvp. The overall effect is still ususally higher then. (well, then pve. WvW its beast.)
the reason is players use skills far more often then npcs. An npc will use a skill once every 1.5-3seconds.
A player is spamming skills every .5-1.25seconds. Depending on the skill.

mischwoof I have been looking at your build and your role in group play, and been wondering about Superior Rune of Mercy wouldn’t make you even more of a ressing beast? Have you looked/tested that rune?

We had Monday Melee Madness night in WvW yesterday, and most of the engis were rocking this build. Verdict: we prybarred them in the face! The build performed pretty well, even with multiples in the group. We just spread out to share the retaliation/reflect love with lots more people then one tankcat can manage.

sPvP video released! enjoy :>

I’ve been hearing that with halved confusion damage, TANKCAT doesn’t do well in sPvP play. Keep in mind that everyone usually has lower hp. I did a couple games and found it very capable.

Amadeus.5687:

mischwoof I have been looking at your build and your role in group play, and been wondering about Superior Rune of Mercy wouldn’t make you even more of a ressing beast? Have you looked/tested that rune?

Mercy was actually my very first rune set, and I love it to death. The only thing that deterred me was not knowing the hard numbers on how much damage reduction it gives while rezzing people. I still run with guardian/earth these days, but I would love to revisit it.

mischwoof.9785:

sPvP video released! enjoy :>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN5TmGOBOjI

OMG! R-R-R-R-R-R AGEQUIT!

Seriously dude. Your PvP videos are the best ever. Loved it.

lol this guy use almost same build what I do, I just have shield cd traint > prot every time I get crit

WOW!

I just spent a few hours prowling around borderlands as tankcat. Most fun Ive had in weeks from WvW

I did however remove 10p from inventions and went for increased range trait in firearms and a rifle instead for p/s for the extra range.

So much fun to magnet pull sniper warriors from the walls to prybar them in the face. Free badges, yay!

So what do you think about sigils now? You going to continue running the same setup. Look forward to hearing what other people think will work well.

zaragoz.6351:

So what do you think about sigils now? You going to continue running the same setup. Look forward to hearing what other people think will work well.

After looking at these patch notes, i’ll definitely be staying with TANKCAT.

For Sigils, Battle is looking to be the most attractive option, by far. Perma 6 stacks of might, yes please :>

Hydromancy seems very attractive, but I just tested it and it doesn’t seem to work.

Energy will probably be my second choice, still doing some testing though. I’m sure there’s other good combinations as well

mischwoof.9785:

zaragoz.6351:

So what do you think about sigils now? You going to continue running the same setup. Look forward to hearing what other people think will work well.

After looking at these patch notes, i’ll definitely be staying with TANKCAT.

For Sigils, Battle is looking to be the most attractive option, by far. Perma 6 stacks of might, yes please :>

Hydromancy seems very attractive, but I just tested it and it doesn’t seem to work.

Energy will probably be my second choice, still doing some testing though. I’m sure there’s other good combinations as well

Haven’t been online yet, I’m still downloading. Did you try the hydromancy sigil with another on swap sigil equiped on your other weapon? Just asking because you can’t have both at the same time.

Seems to me that certain on-swap sigils (Hydromancy, Energy) have an “initial cooldown”. Once the fight is engaged, you have to wait for the duration of the sigil cooldown before it procs for the first time.

Id go with battle, having some might would benefit the spec the most, more power and more cond dmg for confusion. There will be a lot more tankcat after this patch, i like to play unique builds and this wont be one for long

So you can use one in both your shield and pistol and they actually work together? Also just curious mischwoof what runes are you having the most success with these days, Earth, Guardian or something else?

I ran some tests with the Sigil of Battle (pistol) and Sigil of Geomancy (shield) and only the Battle procs. If i take the pistol off, the Geomancy works.

So, idk if we can use two different runes, looks like we can’t. i’m going to test some combinations tonight.

Mitycondria.7052:

I ran some tests with the Sigil of Battle (pistol) and Sigil of Geomancy (shield) and only the Battle procs. If i take the pistol off, the Geomancy works.

So, idk if we can use two different runes, looks like we can’t. i’m going to test some combinations tonight.

There’s a 10 second internal cooldown on different sigils.

My Tankcat story:
It was in one of the enemy’s borderlands, at a peak gaming hour, when I first attempted the Tankcat. I only swapped out jewelry- I still had on my normal Knight’s set with rune of mesmer. Myself and two other (fairly newbie and also engineer) guildies were playing around and, after about an hour of practicing, I suggested we try to take a supply camp. Once we arrived at Bluewater Lowlands, I realized that we would also be facing the army of quaggan guards, but I still felt confident, so I magneted one of them and the fight began. I basically button mashed for a good 10 minutes, until only the main guard person was left. Aaand then two enemy players showed up and all of my confidence left. But I kept mashing those buttons and eventually (after being downed once) came out victorious. ONLY THEN did I find out that my guildies had died before we even killed all the guards, and they were watching in wonder as …..drumroll please….. the Tankcat took over. SOOO I am definitely sticking with this build, I had the most fun Ive ever had in this game with it, and Mischwoof, you are a genius among geniuses. P.S. I am definitely gonna get full Soldier’s set now.

From the wiki.

“A single cooldown is shared by all sigils. Active effects cannot occur for the duration (i.e. a Sigil of Rage will prevent the activated effect of another Sigil of Battle/Strength/Air/Geomancy for 45 seconds but will not affect the passive effect of a Sigil of Smoldering/Force for the cooldown). "

sigil of energy might be useful to all bunker kit engis for the evade every 10 seconds

sidenote: use different types of sigils together. dont remember the specifics but some dont work together like 2 on kill gain x sigils [forget what is the deal with on crit sigils]
ie a passive (+5%dmg or +5% crit) sigil with an on crit gain x sigil
or on kill gain x sigil with a on weapon swap gain x sigil

I’m glad to see Engis still have some potential; these days have been dark for the gearheads of GW2….
What I want to know is the effectiveness of this build in PVP vs its effectiveness in PVE. Any insight?
And what would you suggest for armor types, sigils, and trait point distribution?

Petezahut.3068:

sidenote: use different types of sigils together. dont remember the specifics but some dont work together like 2 on kill gain x sigils [forget what is the deal with on crit sigils]
ie a passive (+5%dmg or +5% crit) sigil with an on crit gain x sigil
or on kill gain x sigil with a on weapon swap gain x sigil

Some good info about that here (some is old, but most of it still holds true):
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/10ilke/how_sigils_work/

Hey guys, sorry I haven’t been around to respond for a few days. I’m back, though! More videos soon to come.

Icebane.1426:

My Tankcat story

Haha, I thought this was hilarious. Thanks for the story :>

Entaurrus Silver.3820:

I’m glad to see Engis still have some potential; these days have been dark for the gearheads of GW2….
What I want to know is the effectiveness of this build in PVP vs its effectiveness in PVE. Any insight?
And what would you suggest for armor types, sigils, and trait point distribution?

The build is not as effective in PvE. It may be useful to replace Elixir B with Bomb Kit, and play with the talents a bit to squeeze some into Explosives. TANKCAT can be a pretty decent support character for dungeon running, but i’d grab Elixir U for turbo rezzing allies. If your group needs damage though, you’d be a lot better off going rifle/nades or something.

For armor I use full soldier’s gear. Sigils I currently use are Sigil of Battle and Sigil of Restoration (if anyone knows a good offhand sigil, i’d love to know what everyone uses). Traits are 0/0/20/30/20 solo or 0/0/20/20/30 for group play. :> I hope that helped!

Bump for any new engies

bump.

sidenote: also i noticed some food seems like it would have good synergy with this build.
a couple that stood out

orrian truffle and meat stew [+40% dodge refill rate and gain might when you dodge]

mango pie [+70 vitality and extra regen ~90 per second]

plate of lemon grass poultry [gain vit equal to 6% of your toughness and +200 power when health is under 50%]

I can vouch for the lemon grass poultry. Works really well if you’re a late healer like I am.

Reminds me of a phrase an old guard told me: “I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took a prybar to the face.”

Prybar…just a good old time…especially when you drink an Elixir B in anticipation of a Thief coming up behind you in a 1v1 fight…

Great Build! I just used Tool Kit/Rifle instead of Pistol/Shield. I like to use Overcharged Shot and Net Shot ALOT. Med Kit/Elixir B/Elixir S/Tool Kit/Mortar(because you never know when you need to bring portable siege!)Also, I use Stabilized Armor to compliment Speedy Kits initiated trait in Alchemy, Invigorating Speed, and Fast Acting Elixirs. Also took your advice and swapped to Med Kit, instead of using Elixir H. At first it was a bit ‘clunky’ to me, but after a little time, I found it to be more useful. I stopped thinking about my Engineer as a Support type for others(used to Healing/Crowd Control/Buff/Debuff roll in City of Heroes and SW:TOR), and focused on my own survival. For Runes I chose Superior Runes of the Fighter(Power and Toughness! Might for 20 secs with Sixth Rune!), and Put Crest of the Soldier in my Rifle(went broke due to hookers and booze XD), with Trinkets focused infused with Crests of the Soldier as well(when in doubt, beef up base stats, I say). Altogether an amazing build that you have given us, O Venerable Engineer!

Got REALLY lucky in this one fight. I was suffering from a condition, the Thief was Stealthed. I accidentally popped Elixir S(meant to pop Elixir B ), and sure enough the Backstab happened…and he missed(or Invulnerable, rather, but you get the point)…Prybar, Thwack, Whack and Smack…He’s down…QUICKLY! Swap to Rifle and close range Jump Shot. Flattened like a pancake, and… I backed up, /bow, toss my Elixir R(which Stealthed me, which I was hoping for), swapped to Tool Kit, and sped off. Injury to insult…

This situation is RARE for me. I’m an average Engineer. Not great, but I find myself having a few outstanding moments that reinforces my love for the Engineer Class. I’m sure this Thief thought I was ‘easy pickinz’. But thanks to ALOT of reading in regards to what others do (You, My fellow Engineers), I was able to pull a Bane vs. Batman in TDKR, and pluck him out of the Dark, because at that moment, ‘The Shadows belong[ed] to me!’

Mischwoof you should do more videos! That was hilarious. And motivating. I wish I could play that well and now going to have to try this build. If nothing else, maybe I can be more successful on suicide runs to try to take out enemy siege.

After playing with this build for several hours, I gotta say that I love it. I have not, however, been able to kill anybody. I’m guessing it’s because I’m not fully geared yet (mostly rares with soldier stats) and because I suck at PvP, but we’ll wait and see.

Hazal Birunae.6082:

After playing with this build for several hours, I gotta say that I love it. I have not, however, been able to kill anybody. I’m guessing it’s because I’m not fully geared yet (mostly rares with soldier stats) and because I suck at PvP, but we’ll wait and see.

This build gets less kills as the knowledge of how incredibly powerful confusion is in WvW filters through the collective consciousness of GW2. That and the fact that several retaliation builds are getting more play.

KirinDave.6451:

Hazal Birunae.6082:

After playing with this build for several hours, I gotta say that I love it. I have not, however, been able to kill anybody. I’m guessing it’s because I’m not fully geared yet (mostly rares with soldier stats) and because I suck at PvP, but we’ll wait and see.

This build gets less kills as the knowledge of how incredibly powerful confusion is in WvW filters through the collective consciousness of GW2. That and the fact that several retaliation builds are getting more play.

Hm…any suggestions to counter these counter builds? Also, after running solo in the EB for a few hours I did have a few good fights where I kicked kitten (or at least survived for a LOT longer than a standard engie).

sorry to be such a noob, explain the term “turbodunking”

Thet.7153:

sorry to be such a noob, explain the term “turbodunking”

quickness + finisher = turbo dunk.

I wanna try this build out…so is the Gear STats Im aiming for Soldier? Or what?

and Just curious, has anybody given Superior Rune of Melandru a whirl on this build? or is the Dolyak Rune the best?