Guild Wars 2

So I was surfing the engineer forums and noticed that there weren’t many productive threads around, so I was hoping that some of the remaining knowledgeable engineers could help tweak my build. I was originally running grenades, but it got really boring and was bad for my keyboard constantly jamming 1. Here is my build (no calculator cuz it always gives bad link)

0/30/0/30/10
Pistol CD reduction, FT/EG CD Reduction and Juggernaut
Elixirs CD, Cleansing 409/Potent Elixir, HGH
Kit Refinement

Running with Dual Pistols (Superior Sigil of Earth, Superior Sigil of Battle), Elixir H for heal, Elixir B, FT, EG, Supply Crate
2 Runes of Fire, 2 runes of monk, 2 runes of water in a mix of Soldier’s armor and knight’s armor with Berserker Amulet and all exquisite ruby jewels in my accessories (Karka shell, Exotic emerald for earrings and 2 rare soldier rings)

I chose to forgo the 15% extra dmg on EG and FT b/c I never use EG for dmg anyways (mainly for super elixir and very rarely fumigate) and 15% on the FT was negligible compared to getting conditon removal or 20% more boon duration on B and H elixir effects.

Despite only running 2 elixirs, combined with boon duration and juggernaut, I can easily hold on to 17-18 stacks of might alone along with really good uptime of the other boons. FT1 does average dmg (if nothing crits 1650, if lots of crits 2.6-2.7k) but notably, it stacks bleed from superior sigil of earth and sharpshooter very well. FT2 hits for decent dmg too. However, I bring a ton of utility and support to the team with 2 super elixirs, 3 condition cleanse (if running 409 + fumigate) – not counting super elixir’s cleanse, and some boon support (kinda random boons though). It’s a lot of work to optimize the damage. I stay in FT for juggernaut, go thru my rotation, swap to pistols, use 3, 4, 2 and then swap back into the FT to maintain might stacks. With CD reduction of both pistols and FT, it’s quite a bit of rotating. I have >3.1k power with >1000 condition dmg when stacking might alone along with 2.6k armor w/FT and 21k hp (mix of soldier and knight gear w/berserker amulet and exquisite ruby jewels). Works for me.

However, I have to put this out there. I feel like we do A LOT of work just to be on par with other classes in terms of dmg. The APM when playing engi is like double than when I play my guardian. Also I think a DD aurashare build actually does all of this, but better and with a bit less work. A might stacking hybrid necromancer (scepter and axe) actually does way more dmg than this build with more survivability due to DS (no support though).

Thanks for reading.

Very solid build. I’ll agree that other professions can achieve similar results more easily, but that’s kind of par for the course right now. One thing that you can do with the engineer that other professions don’t do as well is lifesteal food—the high attack rate of the flamethrower can make you a mean lifesteal tank in most PvE/dungeon situations.

I’ll definitely look into the lifesteal food for progression thru harder dungeons. Atm, I’m only running CoF and AC for alt gearing until they implement the fractal change. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the lifesteal food is not working as intended and we will see an internal CD added soon.

I’m running something very similar, but I use P/S. Would it be better to use Sigil of Fire/Blood instead since you’re not stacking any Condition Damage gear?

I actually did switch to mainhand Sigil of Fire and am liking it more already. I don;t use shield b/c I have yet to find a very good use for it in PvE.

Probably not good to have two different proc sigils on your weapons. Sigil of Earth and Battle will trigger each other’s cooldowns.

Sigil of Earth’s tested CD may be only 2 seconds, but that’s a 2 second window that can affect whether you get your 3 stacks of might for swapping in/out of your kits. This probably cancels out your ability to stack might with weapon swapping. If you want something more reliable, I would either go with +ability stack on kill (Bloodlust, Life, Luck, etc.) or Accuracy/Force sigils.

Sigil of Earth doesn’t do much without any benefits to it. A bleed every 2 seconds for 5 seconds isn’t that great, especially if you don’t have any +% condition duration. If you want something to compliment it, I recommend either Frailty (Vuln on crit; good for groups) or Strength (Might on crit) where both have a tested CD of 1 second.