Guild Wars 2

As the title suggests I’m asking about the viability of several variations on the meta cele build. On cele rifle 6 in explosives is pretty much mandatory and alchemy is so good, trait variations are quite limited. However I tried 6/0/0/6/2 so I can get vigour, protection and backpack regen and I really like it. But am I missing out too much on other trait lines?

Secondly, recently I have seen a lot of engis use slick shoes, is that just due to a lot of players copying what they saw in WTS? Is elixir gun still viable?

Thanks in advance!

Hiba from Cheese Mode is still playing elixir gun. So yes it is viable.

Slick shoes gives you an option to lock down your opponent. Elixir gun gives you more and better surviveablity and more poison.

Elixir S, Slick Shoes and elixir gun all are viable.

S, Shoes, EG are all viable and mostly personal preference. If you want to tank more and cleave more and bunkerbust more, EG. If you want to throw out more wombo-combos, especially with voice coordination with your team, slickies are good. If you want stomp/res mechanics and heavy disengages, S is good.

For traits, 60062 and 60044 are the only setups I see. The 62 is passively slightly sturdier, and the 44 is more “slippery” (has a shorter TK block, has shorter CD magnet or if you take leg mods it can escape lockdowns better, and the 3 pt passive gives you some goodies). The damage for both should be comparable since 44 gets prybar damage and crit damage, while the 5pt alchemy passive gives a couple % damage. It probably mostly depends on your enemy team comp.

No one runs 60044 anymore.. 62042 or 60062 are your best bets.
61042 is even better than 60044.

Protection injection is kinda dumb, cause you should just be dodging/blinding/out-ranging/counter cc’ing any cc that comes to you.
(protection doesn’t really help you against things like fear from a terrormancer)

Keep in mind if you can’t play a 3 kit engineer effectively the egun will become more of a burden than a tool. That being said i think it’s probably the best of these three.

Slick shoes forces your opponent to use a stun break (which is great) but you’re giving up the defensive capabilities of egun or S; so you need a good team to peel for you when you’re getting trained as you no longer have a good disengage.

S is basically the safe mode. The stealth provides a nice disengage or engage; the S is good for negating any heavy burst while running to teammates or just countering DPS guardians or S/- elementalists or thieves opening burst; you can use it to stay safe while conditions tick upon your opponent and most regularly seen, securing stomps.

Two of them don’ provide the engineer with anyway to secure a stomp, which is kind of important in a lot of cases.

Voljin.5421:

No one runs 60044 anymore.. 62042 or 60062 are your best bets.
61042 is even better than 60044.

Protection injection is kinda dumb, cause you should just be dodging/blinding/out-ranging/counter cc’ing any cc that comes to you.
(protection doesn’t really help you against things like fear from a terrormancer)

Keep in mind if you can’t play a 3 kit engineer effectively the egun will become more of a burden than a tool. That being said i think it’s probably the best of these three.

Slick shoes forces your opponent to use a stun break (which is great) but you’re giving up the defensive capabilities of egun or S; so you need a good team to peel for you when you’re getting trained as you no longer have a good disengage.

S is basically the safe mode. The stealth provides a nice disengage or engage; the S is good for negating any heavy burst while running to teammates or just countering DPS guardians or S/- elementalists or thieves opening burst; you can use it to stay safe while conditions tick upon your opponent and most regularly seen, securing stomps.

Two of them don’ provide the engineer with anyway to secure a stomp, which is kind of important in a lot of cases.

Ostricheggs and Chaith run 6/0/0/4/4, so they’re nobody I guess. Hibify runs 6/0/0/6/2. I know of 0 people who run 6/2/0/4/2. I can see EG or rifle recharge being useful and it does make sense to me to run 2 in firearms depending on what you want to give up. Protection injection is most certainly not useless. Nobody dodges all the CC all the time perfectly, it is a good defense when being focused (can’t say that about 4 in tools or 2 in firearms), and you give yourself protection from overcharged shot even if you miraculously dodge everything perfectly.

Slick shoes are also good for when you know your enemy’s build and you know they don’t have more stunbreaks. 45 seconds is quite the long cooldown for just baiting the stunbreaks. Other than that, your evaluation of EG/Slick/S makes a lot of sense.

Slick Shoes is in use because it’s our best offensive option atm. Not only does the skill itself wreak havoc upon thieves, mesmers, necros, and other engineers, it also comes with Super Speed, our lowest cooldown stunbreak. Super Speed can be used offensively immediately after Overcharged Shot to ensure a large burst on anyone that doesn’t have stability or a stun break ready, which is excellent in 1v1/1v2 scenarios. It’s far Superior to Elixir Gun both stunbreaking and escaping fights, though Elixir Gun can be the better option versus some condi heavy team comps. The safe stomp on Elixir S is lovely, and certainly worth taking if your team has a distinct lack of stomping capabilities, but I don’t think it’s worth taking over Slick Shoes otherwise. Toss Elixir S on downed allies is nice, but unlikely to save them in large midfights unless you have a bunker nearby to help res through high pressure. It’s not as good of an escape as Slick Shoes is due to the prevalence of soft CC in the current meta, but there are some stealth plays that can be made with it to decap points you would have otherwise been stopped at— so if that’s your thing, by all means take Elixir S.

Honestly, I think 6/0/0/4/4 is much better than 6/0/0/6/2 atm. Between vigor, tool kit’s block, and super speed’s stun break, you really don’t need protection injection. The -50% duration on soft CCs you get from the combination of Hoelbrak runes and leg mods is godly, but if you’re playing against a comp without much soft CC (what are you playing against, anyway? 5 guards?), you can take power wrench for lower cd block/pull and some hilariously high pry bars against squishies when used with intelligence sigil. Not to mention having all your toolbelt skills recharge at 25% hp, meaning you can play offensively with Super Speed and have it off cooldown to disengage with should things go south. It’s also useful for Toss Elixir S recharge.

6/2/0/4/2… eh. Honestly, I only use it when I feel like being cheesey on skyhammer, because flamethrower’s air blast into range traited overcharged shot is hilarious on side points/skyhammer platform. Having a 600 range instant knockback with overcharged shot can be pretty OP for setting up team bursts, but isn’t particularly great in lower numbered fights due to how close range our best burst damage is, so I don’t see it being all that useful outside of maybe a large teamfight at mid on foefire. You could take Hair Trigger for the reduced cd on rifle for bursts, or invigorating precision for perma vigor, but I don’t think either are worth giving up inertial converter + leg mods. The extra precision isn’t needed because of ensured crits from intelligence sigil, and the extra condi damage is kinda meh due to how little of our damage comes from condi anyway. If backpack regenerator wasn’t so good, I could see 6/0/0/2/6 being pretty fun though.

Sins.4782:

Honestly, I think 6/0/0/4/4 is much better than 6/0/0/6/2 atm. Between vigor, tool kit’s block, and super speed’s stun break, you really don’t need protection injection. The -50% duration on soft CCs you get from the combination of Hoelbrak runes and leg mods is godly, but if you’re playing against a comp without much soft CC (what are you playing against, anyway? 5 guards?), you can take power wrench for lower cd block/pull and some hilariously high pry bars against squishies when used with intelligence sigil. Not to mention having all your toolbelt skills recharge at 25% hp, meaning you can play offensively with Super Speed and have it off cooldown to disengage with should things go south. It’s also useful for Toss Elixir S recharge.

You do make some good points and I’d completely forgot about inertial converter, which would make a lot of sense for someone using slick shoes and elixir S, however if you use elixir gun like I do, I think it’s usefulness decreases slightly, since unlike elixir S and slick shoes tool belt skills, elixir gun’s skill does not provide any disengage (since at 25% some regen isn’t going to do you any good). As for leg mods and power wrench, they are both really great traits, I guess in my mind 4 seconds of protection just sounds really good to me. I think if you are using slick shoes and elixir S, then 60044 is better.

The backbone of condi/cele builds is 6/x/x/4/2. The rest is personal preference.

robertul.3679:

The backbone of condi/cele builds is 6/x/x/4/2. The rest is personal preference.

12/14 traits should not be considered a “backbone”

LOL

Narkodx.1472:

robertul.3679:

The backbone of condi/cele builds is 6/x/x/4/2. The rest is personal preference.

12/14 traits should not be considered a “backbone”

LOL

Except it’s not really an option because 6 explosives is mandatory to deal good damage, 4 alchemy is just-about-mandatory to not be squishier than thieves and mesmers, and 2 in tools is pretty much mandatory for roaming and vigor. It is the “backbone”, and the rest is personal preference.

Zethyrius.8692:

Narkodx.1472:

robertul.3679:

The backbone of condi/cele builds is 6/x/x/4/2. The rest is personal preference.

12/14 traits should not be considered a “backbone”

LOL

Except it’s not really an option because 6 explosives is mandatory to deal good damage, 4 alchemy is just-about-mandatory to not be squishier than thieves and mesmers, and 2 in tools is pretty much mandatory for roaming and vigor. It is the “backbone”, and the rest is personal preference.

Yes. Either 2 in firearms for hair trigger and some extra bleeds(pistol builds only), 2 in tools for power wrench/leg mods(I find leg mods stupid compared to toolkit cd but some like it) or 2 in alchemy for protection injection.

I personally prefer 60044 for both cele and condi(p/p).

60440 with energy is also viable btw^^

Cava.7254:

60440 with energy is also viable btw^^

No… No it is not.

Wahoo! Bye frands!

ArrDee.2573:

Cava.7254:

60440 with energy is also viable btw^^

No… No it is not.

Wahoo! Bye frands!

yes it is, but its not great in spvp and thats most of your knowledge base so im not surprised you call it bad

ArrDee.2573:

Cava.7254:

60440 with energy is also viable btw^^

No… No it is not.

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Yes in my opinion it is.

It does not appear you are very knowledgeable with WvW. We appreciate your trying to help. But your lack of knowledge and experience in the field is harmful to the OPs inquire. Perhaps it is best if you stick to advising on PvP, where you have a solid grasp on the game mode.

Since OP mentioned WTS this is about pvp not wvw. Not that it matters because it’s not like inventions line is good in wvw either. Or any game mode ever.