Guild Wars 2

Hello frands! Vee Wee here, retired #1 Engi NA and world first rank 80!

The patch hit yesterday and I didn’t even know! So I logged in and wanted to test my theory of Scavenging Runes Engi in PvP! The results: fantabulous! Here is the build!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQJAqalUUp+qlcxELseRCbBNqxAqNIyNWlPfgAkUA-T5gHwADeAAAOBAILDAA
The site isn’t updated with the actual rune yet so just pretend I have it in there!

This is a pretty standard P/P condi Engi and the playstyle is the same! The difference is the significant boon to your sustain from your 3 lifesteal procs! And it adds a nice bit of damage! 974 per proc!

The lifesteal procs don’t stack! This means that if you have a Leeching Sigil proc ready to go and you heal for the Scavenging Rune lifesteal proc, you will only lifesteal once on your next hit! Try not to overlap lifesteal procs!

In comparison to Vee Wee’s Adventurer Runes Condi Engi build, this build has no Protection Injection! Protection Injection is really useful against the 50 billion Thieves and celestial Engis that are out there! Be more cautious when fighting these classes if you are transitioning from Vee Wee’s Adventurer Runes Condi Engi build!

Variations!

• Slick Shoes over Elixir S! I love Elixir S! I use for so many reasons! Stomps! Revives! Disengage! Backcap! But if you wanted to use Slick Shoes instead, that is perfectly fine! Slick Shoes is one of the strongest stunbreak utilities in the game! It’s pretty OP!
• Shield over offhand pistol though shield doesn’t really work well! You sacrifice too much burning uptime without offhand pistol and Balthazar Runes! You could replace Tool Kit with Bomb Kit or Flamethrower, but honestly in my opinion it makes for a weaker build! You lose a major defensive cooldown with Gear Shield and combo setups with Magnet!

And just in case anyone is interested, here are some other P/P condi Engi builds!
Vee Wee’s Adventurer Runes Build!
Standard Balthazar Runes!
While many regard this version as meta, I am not a fan! Against meta comps, there are so many forms of AoE condi removal and just condi removal in general! DD Eles! Engi Healing Turrets! Shoutbows! Not to mention the super long burns that you place on yourself from Necro condi transfers! The added burn duration, while really powerful, I feel is just wasted against all these forms of condi removal and team support! That’s just my opinion anyway! It’s why I ran Adventurer Runes and now Scavenging Runes!

And as always, don’t stand on point unless you have to! You are more fragile than you think!
Roam a lot! You have permanent swiftness to roam between points and +1 a fight to explode someone with condis! This is how you carry a team if solo queueing!

Hope you enjoy this build frands! Wahoo! Bye frands!

well, obvious (no offense) and viable variation of the standard. i prefer carrion, though.

Thank you, VeeWee. I’ve got to try this. The day that I no longer housesit a node has finally comes.

ArrDee.2573:

The lifesteal procs don’t stack! This means that if you have a Leeching Sigil proc ready to go and you heal for the Scavenging Rune lifesteal proc, you will only lifesteal once on your next hit! Try not to overlap lifesteal procs!

Crap, really? I never knew that. I don’t really use that combination often, but I didn’t kow that was an issue. Will have to be more careful in the future.

zaced.7948:

well, obvious (no offense) and viable variation of the standard. i prefer carrion, though.

I used to prefer carrion as well, although it’s much tougher to sustain with carrion since your life-armor ratio can easily exceed 10. It also slams your crit chance into the floor, which can be problematic if you have an unreliable source of fury.

As such, I think this build is likely more effective with the rabid amulet . In the past, you were able to do a carrion-rabid mix, which is generally what I use for WvW as well, but ever since they made it just one amulet with flat stats, it kind of screws carrion over in PvP. At least as far as the engineer is concerned, anyways.

without ferocity i prefer doing higher base damage than hoping for random crits and due to horrible condiremoval a higher base hp seems worth more than defense since i can dodge/block direct damage therefore carrion. but both is fine imo.

wat? talk is about condi build, non zerker. your IP and Sharpshooter depends on your crit chanse.

yes, i know. ip is triggered by int sigil (i don’t use geomancy and this way i have at least some control over it), although it’s not even needed because 9% are enough to trigger ip (4% base + 5% from firearms). and the dmg from sharpshooter is meaningless if you actually calculate how much it does on average. i wouldn’t go for crit chance just to proc ss. maybe with 75-80%+ critchance but not around 50%.

I think Carrion works just fine. There is nice synergy between the added vitality and the 6 piece rune bonus. But I’d use 60062 instead of 62042 like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQJAqalUUp+qlcxELseNCbBNqxI6N2xq85DEgkC-T5AHwAFeAAAOBAJLDAA

The reason I prefer Rabid is because I think it has better stats. With Carrion you have to sacrifice a sigil slot for Intelligence Sigil to make use of Incendiary Powder. Geomancy is one of the strongest sigils for condi builds if not the strongest, and I hate to give it up.

Carrion has no toughness at all which means Mesmers, Thieves, Medi Guards, and any other power class and even celestial will just rip right through you. In my opinion, all Carrion Engi builds need to run Protection Injection or even Protective Shield. This leaves you without the pistol cooldown trait which means less poison and burn uptime.

But like I said, Carrion would work fine. I don’t think it will work as well as Rabid, but builds aren’t set in stone and there are definitely perks to using Carrion over Rabid. Run whatever you like my frand.

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Here is a clip of the build in action my frands! Vee Wee prevails in a 3+Supply Crate vs 1!

http://www.twitch.tv/livskis/c/5992510

Wahoo! Bye frands!

ArrDee.2573:

snip

isn’t geomancy only one stack bleeding now? that’s ~100 additional dps for melee range … that’s a tight radius…

but whatevs, as engineers we have the luck to have some highly variable basic builds. i completely agree with most of them being viable and strong.

Geomancy is still 3 stacks my frand!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

why not trade geomancy for energy and take Protection Injection ? you lose in damage but Protection Injection is quite strong …

Because in my opinion, Energy Sigil alone is not enough dodges!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Is that build viable in PvE and WvW?

WAHOO! FRAND

~bert

Scythex.6930:

Is that build viable in PvE and WvW?

This build isn’t really optimal in PvE! Technically you could use it because PvE in this game is hilariously easy but your damage output will be pretty low in comparison to other builds! Condition builds in general aren’t really that good in PvE!

The build works great roaming in WvW! There are some alterations I’d make for WvW! I’d run something like this! Food buffs make condi Engi a monster when roaming! You can beat almost anything 1v1 and you have plenty of disengages and mobility to run away if you’re overwhelmed! This build won’t be that great in zergs! Condition builds in general I find are weak in zergs!

Hope that helped! Wahoo! Bye frands!

ArrDee.2573:

Geomancy is still 3 stacks my frand!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

!!!! need now
/15 chars

I tried the same thing VeeWee but I brought an intelligence sigil for the crowbars and nade skills just to make use of the added power. If you don’t want to try that I would personally bring the new torment sigil over leeching for the added cover condi, it has 100% up-time.

ArrDee.2573:

Because in my opinion, Energy Sigil alone is not enough dodges!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

hmm

energy sigil alone is equivalent to 100% vigor uptime… and invigorating speed only provides 60% uptime @ 20% boon duration using speedy kits. you have to get swiftness from a source that will not easily play nice with speedy kits’s icd in order to match the dodge frequency provided by energy sigil…

i mean personal dislike is cool, but it really is more dodges than just invigorating speed, which is what youve linked in all 3 places…

Hey Vee Wee. I tried your build yesterday and it really seems to work well. I replaced Sigil of Leeching with the new Torment sigil to cover my condis even more.

Substain is fine. Damage looks good. I miss the extra burning from time to time, but overall this works well. Thank you for posting your build idea.

Is Rune of the Nightmare considered a good rune for P/P condi engi? It increases the uptime of all your condis and the fear can let you chain into your other skills nicely.

The increase of condi duration is 5% too low to get an extra tick for bleeding and poison damage (and an for IP burning).

The fear is uncontrolable and only necro fear damage foes. So this is not an option for us in my point of view.

Forgot about this thread my frands! I will try to answer some questions!

insanemaniac.2456:

ArrDee.2573:

Because in my opinion, Energy Sigil alone is not enough dodges!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

hmm

energy sigil alone is equivalent to 100% vigor uptime… and invigorating speed only provides 60% uptime @ 20% boon duration using speedy kits. you have to get swiftness from a source that will not easily play nice with speedy kits’s icd in order to match the dodge frequency provided by energy sigil…

i mean personal dislike is cool, but it really is more dodges than just invigorating speed, which is what youve linked in all 3 places…

You are right that Energy Sigil gives more dodges! But I don’t like only relying on Energy Sigil for dodges! It’s why I run Energy Sigil in my Adventurer Runes build! Extra dodges when you heal! Plus with the huge number of DD Eles and Shoubows in the meta, you’re practically guaranteed to get loads of extra swiftness for invigorating speed! Also the sigils are really tight! Geomancy is required for all condi Engi builds because it’s frickin amazing and there is so much synergy with Leeching and Scavenging Runes that I have to run it!

Cenzuo.6328:

Is Rune of the Nightmare considered a good rune for P/P condi engi? It increases the uptime of all your condis and the fear can let you chain into your other skills nicely.

Nightmare is the really old Engi meta rune back when sigils didn’t stack and some people opted for smoldering to reach +50% burn duration! I don’t think it’s the best choice for Engi currently! The condi duration bonus is 5% off from reaching any kind of milestone so it’s just wasted! The fear is ok but relying on random procs with long cooldowns isn’t a good tactic! It’s a decent rune for any condi class for sure, but there are much better runes for condi Engi! Balthazar, Adventurer, and Scavenging are the 3 best imo!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Wee Vee what do you think about to replace the sigil of geomancy for the sigil of torment? With the sigil of torment you have 1 condition more to cover your poison, burning or bleeding. Torment does less damage as geomancy but what do you think?

I think Geomancy is necessary for any condi Engi build. It’s literally the strongest condi sigil in the game.

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Just want to update and say that these runes are currently bugged! You will not receive the leech proc when you heal in a match! This makes this build not as good as the 4 piece is the important leech proc from the runes! More important than the random proc from the 2 piece! You can still use the build, but it won’t be as strong! Vee Wee recommends Vee Wee’s Adventurer Build or the standard Balthazar build for condi Engineer until these runes get fixed!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

even if you go to pve and repair you armor? I play with this build but without the sigil of leeching and I am sure that I see the icon from time to time. Have to test it tonight. Thank you for the message.

The 2 piece bonus still works but after extensive testing, I’ve discovered that the 4 piece bonus is bugged! You can unbug it by swapping to a different rune and swapping back during the match warmup! However it will bug again if you die! So if you go through the entire match without dying I guess it won’t be bugged!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Wahoo thank you for testing it. You are so kind to the engi community!!

still not fixed? Someone tested it again?

I need your help Vee Wee.
Recently i happened to face about 20 billion of teeves and celestial engies, by an accident, they didn’t knew how amazing my build was (I was using the on you posted, obviously), and keep on killing me like there’s no tomorow. It’s a shame, but their attitude made me drop the game for a few hours, I just couldn’t handle such offensive doing towards our master’s Vee Wee plan.
Do you plan on educating those troglodytes on how flawless this build is, so we can all actually enjoy it?

You should be able to beat Thieves as a condi Engi! Celestial Engi has an advantage 1v1 against a condi Engi because of their insanely short cooldown stunbreak matching your one and only CC (Magnet) and your one long stunbreak cooldown against their many forms of CC! You have a large advantage if you can dodge Overcharge Shot, but good luck dodging instant cast very long duration CC with a very short cooldown!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

I played it.

I like it so far.

are the runes still bugged?

Haven’t played the game in a while, but considering Anet takes goshdarn forever to do anything, I’d wager they are still bugged! But try it out for yourself! Go into a hotjoin with the runes on and heal! If you don’t see the leeching icon, they are still bugged!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

Anet has claimed the runes are fixed, but always take whatever they say with a grain of salt!

Wahoo! Bye frands!