Guild Wars 2

Hey all, new to Engi, and I’m seeing a lot of FT/EG builds floating around but no definitive WvW variants. I’m looking for a tanky FT build that’s currently viable. I’m looking for mobility, tankiness and the ability to 1v1 without having my damage output laughed at. I plan on running in groups but the ability to roam in the wee hours of the night would be nice as well!! If such a build exists and I’ve overlooked it please share! As I said I’m new to engi so theorycrafting is out of the question in my current state of noobness. Thanks in advance for any knowledge sharing!!

-Mord

This is precisely what I run right now, but it’s a work in progress. I’m working toward full Celestial, with the relevant WvW infusions. Soldier is just a placeholder until I get the Pristine Fractal Relics for the rings (though the new patch has been a distraction), and the Charged Quartz for the Pistol and Shield.

This is a build better for roaming, but you could take it into zergs and survive OK. If you’re afraid of a little Retaliation, drop Juggernaut for Coated Bullets and stand back with the Pistol/Shield, using Fumigate for condi removal and Super Elixir with Magnetic Inversion for a little Area Retaliation of your own.

Thank you Phineas, I’ve read several of your posts and was hoping you’d comment on this with your updated WvW build. Thank you for the input, I’ll definitely look into it! Might I ask why full celestial though? Is there a more optimized gear set? Also how well do you do roaming, I know it would take me time to get used to the build/combos/kits but what are YOUR successes while roaming. The survivability looks great, how good is your damage/whittling down enemies?

At first I was incredibly skeptical of Celestial. I thought that Soldier was still best for zergs, because stacking as much survivability as possible is best for those situations. And I think that is still partially true … but the second you go out roaming, Soldier really rears its ugly head.

Bunkering is kind of pointless when roaming in WvW, because the objective isn’t just to outlast NPCs/other players—you have to kill them to capture points or stay alive. And Flame Jet’s mediocre damage just becomes terribad in Soldier. I would end up just prolonging fights and creating a slow death for myself because I could never kill anybody. My best offense was simply to Air Blast people off ledges (which is still quite funny when it works) or pray they were dumb enough to just stand around in Acid Bomb’s pulse AoE.

As for my success with it, I wouldn’t come on here and advertise a build I thought only worked for myself; I think anyone could genuinely pick up this build and wield it effectively. I wouldn’t go charging in solo to a zerg of 20+ Blackgate, but it has served me well when small-group roaming with my guild in tier one match-ups, and whenever we hitch a ride with a zerg.

I always thought flamethrower was better suited as a secondary weapon at best. Like yes, we have the juggernaut trait, but it just does not do justice in wvw in my opinion thats cause when you die at least for me in world vs world its never from an npc or a player, but a big blob of enemy tags who decided to stop whatever objective they primarily to chase me down. So whatever you ultimately decide for your build slap rocket boots as one of your must have utilities.

Sounds perfectly well thought out. That was my worry with another build posted on these forums that used soldier/knights gear! That the damage output wouldn’t be enough and that it would essentially become a slap fight where neither of us could down each other! So I like your reasoning behind celestial! My only concern is that I’m not a fan of pve so how will I go about getting celestial trinkets? Also curious about how amazing your healing power with all the healing abilities/light fields/water fields you can throw out! I picture it all in a 1v2 or even 1v3 situation and I think it’d be amazing! What’s your input? Also how often do you solo roam and what’s your experience in 1v1 or 1vX situations with this build? I’m very curious!!

Thanks in advance Phineas!

FirstInfantry.2795:

I always thought flamethrower was better suited as a secondary weapon at best. Like yes, we have the juggernaut trait, but it just does not do justice in wvw in my opinion thats cause when you die at least for me in world vs world its never from an npc or a player, but a big blob of enemy tags who decided to stop whatever objective they primarily to chase me down. So whatever you ultimately decide for your build slap rocket boots as one of your must have utilities.

Hence my plea for mobility! Lol it’s an essential part of any WvW build!

If you are going to be primarily 1v1 and solo roaming, I would highly recommend an HGH P/P build over FT/EG.

I can generally go to 1v3 and cull the players off one at a time, especially if they are randoms. A coordinated 1v3 would be super tough. A coordinated 1v2 is fairly easy as long as you manage your health properly. This also depends on the classes you are fighting. Thieves are the easiest class for an Engi to beat by far.

Edit – If you are built this way you can still contribute to the zerg when necessary by using CC and protecting the back lines from thieves.

Yeah that’s what I’m currently running, Mask’s variation! Just wanted some more versatility and the ability for group play but to still be able to solo roam if and when I want to!

I hear ya. If I ever get back to primarily running zergs, I’ll switch back to P/S FT/EG. It’s way more synergistic to P/T/V gear anyway. I’d also like to play with Acid Bomb and Rocket Boots together (I’m over here….nope, now I’m over here)

Mord.9237:

Sounds perfectly well thought out. That was my worry with another build posted on these forums that used soldier/knights gear! That the damage output wouldn’t be enough and that it would essentially become a slap fight where neither of us could down each other! So I like your reasoning behind celestial! My only concern is that I’m not a fan of pve so how will I go about getting celestial trinkets? Also curious about how amazing your healing power with all the healing abilities/light fields/water fields you can throw out! I picture it all in a 1v2 or even 1v3 situation and I think it’d be amazing! What’s your input? Also how often do you solo roam and what’s your experience in 1v1 or 1vX situations with this build? I’m very curious!!

Thanks in advance Phineas!

You can buy Celestial jewelry with laurels and badges. A little bit longer than doing Fractals, but it is possible. The armor and weapons will be the harder part. You need to craft them yourself because they are account bound when created. You must have 400 crafting of that particular discipline to make them, as well.

If this isn’t possible for you, I would look at just mixing and matching armor insignias, though you don’t get overall as many stats as Celestial doing it that way. Or just sticking with Soldier.

As for 1v1 in WvW, I handle most classes pretty handily. Rangers are the only ones that regularly give me trouble right now.

I’m actually 400 LW and Weaponsmith so that wouldn’t be a problem, I’ll have to look into the recipes and things and see what kind of grind is ahead of me! Thanks again!

Well, keep in mind you need Huntsman for the pistol recipe.

Out of curiosity, I saw a “satchel of celestial embalzoned armor” is it soulbound too? It’s essentially a whole set. Didn’t say soulbound on pickup or anything but then again it was gw2db. I’m working nonstop and can’t access jack squat aside from my through my phone.

Also I love your build, what stats should I ultimately be shooting for for effectiveness? If I were to tweak the gear from celestial and go another route? Is there another route? I love messing around in the calculators but have no idea about magic numbers for engi effectiveness especially with this particular build! Any info would be much appreciated!