@Reuxvnoir, Aristio:
Did anyone of you actually read the OP??? he asks for a leveling build and is lvl22. Posting terrible lvl80 Builds is no help at all.@OP: Power/Rifle is the way to go. A Single Mob, even veterans shouldnt be able to reach you due a lot of controlling with your rifle and bomb kit. Its all about positioning, Auto with rifle pierces, thunderbluss&Jumpshot is AE.
@blutstein: Yeah, level 80 builds are great and all, but when you’re level 22 you don’t have the gear or the trait points to really replicate them. So posting them is a bit counterproductive, although it can give a goal to move towards later in the game.
@OP: blutstein’s build is something you could probably work with just fine, I see a lot of Engineers that run builds similar to that. If you don’t like the rifle though, or just want to try something a little different, then I would recommend a Pistol/Pistol build using Elixirs, which is how I leveled.
Basically, toss 10 points into Firearms, which will net you +100 Precision, +100 Condition Damage, and the minor trait that gives you a 30% chance to cause Bleeding for 3 seconds on critical hits. Then I would recommend taking VI – Hair Trigger as your major trait, as this will decrease your Pistol/Rifle/Harpoon cooldowns by 20%. Lower cooldowns is a great way to quickly increase your capabilities in the early game, as it means that your skills are now up 20% faster, thus letting you do more damage and toss out more conditions (Poison, Confusion, Blind, Burning, Immobilize and Cripple, if you’re using P/P…and that’s not including the Bleeding caused by your 1 skill).
Then throw the rest of your points for now into Alchemy to get Hidden Flask (Drink an Elixir B at 75% health, giving you a ton of helpful boons) and II – Fast Acting Elixirs (Elixir skills recharge 20% faster). It’ll take you till level 30 to get that, but in the meantime it will add some Vitality and Boon Duration, and eventually allow you to apply a lot more boons that last for a lot longer.
The reason I like this build is the play style. You can get four Elixirs in your toolbar this way (I use B, U and C, with Elixir H as my heal), which allows for a lot of buffs. Your Pistol skills work best when changing you distance to your opponent. Your 1 and 3 work great from range, whereas your 2 and 4 work great up close. 2 because you want to make sure all your shots hit, and 4 because you get a bigger Burning duration out of it. Your 5 skill can either be dropped at close range while you retreat back to medium range, or at medium range to keep an enemy from closing to melee. Honestly though, it seems like a bit of a weak skill to me, so I forget to use it most of the time. Circle strafing + dodges does a pretty good job of keeping you out of enemy reach.
With the Elixirs you can pop B as soon as the fight starts (Grants Fury, Might, Retaliation and Swiftness), H as needed for either the heal or the random boon, U for the Quickness buff (works great when you’re about to drop your 2 skill, since the whole things unloads VERY fast, giving your enemy less time to mess up your shots) and C to cleanse conditions as needed. You could also use S as a stunbreaker or escape skill in place of U, but until you get Condition 409 C is a bit of must have.
So basically, if you want to be a bit more active and in the enemies face while throwing around conditions and boons like candy, this build works quite well.