Guild Wars 2

Black Cat.1024:

Kimbald.2697:

Black Cat.1024:

Kimbald.2697:

Black Cat.1024:

Black Cat.1024:

Kimbald.2697:

Black Cat.1024:

And I didn’t answer your question. I’m open to suggestions but I guess I was aiming for a P/P and elixir gun swap most of the time.

that’s a conditon build, and changes everything
Can work great as a mixed build with FT indeed.

I see what you’re getting at.. Ok, lets try a condi high evasive build. Where do I start?

I switched it up a bit.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQJAqal0pqbn1y3F1LJxoCdG0j8WX8KSR+x8nCsF-jUyAYLhQSUAJCI5wioxWaRrvERjqbMdMRUt5uIa1CBMaBA-w

What’s wrong now? haha, I’m actually enjoying this, It’s been a long time since I’ve played a class I didn’t know like the back of my hand.

I would take Juggernaut over napalm specialist (even though that’s a good trait), or replace one of the ‘Trigger’ traits. Because let’s face it: if you swap from FT to EG to dual pistol… you’ll never use all the cooldowns to their fullest.

And Deadly Mixture over Blood Injection, since your vitality is a bit low anyhow.
Yes, that’s power damage instead of condittion… but with FT it ends up a mixed build anyhow.

Runes of the undeath are a cheap and good toughness-condi build option.

2 battle sigils don’t stack, and with high crit you can take earth or battle. But you’ll need a second sigil with no cooldown at all (5% crit, even more burning duration to reach 33% trait + 10% sigil + 10% Explosives Traitline use)
For example: 33% trait 10% sigil 10% Explosives 10% from one Givers weapon + 40% food = 100% burning duration added !
(103% but it caps at 100…)

Gratz by the way, you arrived at a balanced FT-EG p/p build

Haha, thanks!
So this is what I’ve arrived at: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQJAqal0pqbn1y3F1LJxoCdG0j8WX8KSR+b8nCsF-j0yAYLEsWApKAEBQqASOsIaslW06LR0o6GTHTEVbuLiWtUAQsGA-w
I filled it all out, so tell me what you think

this will work for sure.
I would still say ‘Juggernaut’ but you’ll be good without

We have a few FT adepts here on the forum, and i’m sure they’ll chip in later this evening.
They might add some details.

A few wrote guides even.
Think Nakoda and Phineas Phoe are 2 of the more vivid defenders of the Flamethrower I can remember by heart, might want to put their names in the search engine if they don’t show up here.

I will, thanks for all your help!

very welcome, I’m no specialist on any specific build, but I experiment with every single fun fact the engineer has to offer… and there are a ton of those, despite the bugs and damage penalties

ESKan.6782:

Stabilized Armor is 10 in Inventions, not 30 in Tools. You’re thinking of Armor Mods, perhaps? (+50% endurance regen)

was actually thinking of the reduced cripple etc from Leg Mods when I wrote that last line, for some silly reason.
Probably because the food gives less condition duration too, and I coupled that in my mind with Leg Mods for 50% less immobilize-cripple-chill… which had absolutely nothing to do with the topic at hand

The rest stands as it is of course.
Will edit, thanks for pointing it out.

Black Cat.1024:

Kimbald.2697:

Black Cat.1024:

Black Cat.1024:

Kimbald.2697:

Black Cat.1024:

And I didn’t answer your question. I’m open to suggestions but I guess I was aiming for a P/P and elixir gun swap most of the time.

that’s a conditon build, and changes everything
Can work great as a mixed build with FT indeed.

I see what you’re getting at.. Ok, lets try a condi high evasive build. Where do I start?

I switched it up a bit.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQJAqal0pqbn1y3F1LJxoCdG0j8WX8KSR+x8nCsF-jUyAYLhQSUAJCI5wioxWaRrvERjqbMdMRUt5uIa1CBMaBA-w

What’s wrong now? haha, I’m actually enjoying this, It’s been a long time since I’ve played a class I didn’t know like the back of my hand.

I would take Juggernaut over napalm specialist (even though that’s a good trait), or replace one of the ‘Trigger’ traits. Because let’s face it: if you swap from FT to EG to dual pistol… you’ll never use all the cooldowns to their fullest.

And Deadly Mixture over Blood Injection, since your vitality is a bit low anyhow.
Yes, that’s power damage instead of condittion… but with FT it ends up a mixed build anyhow.

Runes of the undeath are a cheap and good toughness-condi build option.

2 battle sigils don’t stack, and with high crit you can take earth or battle. But you’ll need a second sigil with no cooldown at all (5% crit, even more burning duration to reach 33% trait + 10% sigil + 10% Explosives Traitline use)
For example: 33% trait 10% sigil 10% Explosives 10% from one Givers weapon + 40% food = 100% burning duration added !
(103% but it caps at 100…)

Gratz by the way, you arrived at a balanced FT-EG p/p build

Haha, thanks!
So this is what I’ve arrived at: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQJAqal0pqbn1y3F1LJxoCdG0j8WX8KSR+b8nCsF-j0yAYLEsWApKAEBQqASOsIaslW06LR0o6GTHTEVbuLiWtUAQsGA-w
I filled it all out, so tell me what you think

this will work for sure.
I would still say ‘Juggernaut’ but you’ll be good without

We have a few FT adepts here on the forum, and i’m sure they’ll chip in later this evening.
They might add some details.

A few wrote guides even.
Think Nakoda and Phineas Phoe are 2 of the more vivid defenders of the Flamethrower I can remember by heart, might want to put their names in the search engine if they don’t show up here.

Black Cat.1024:

Kimbald.2697:

Black Cat.1024:

Kimbald.2697:

Black Cat.1024:

And I didn’t answer your question. I’m open to suggestions but I guess I was aiming for a P/P and elixir gun swap most of the time.

that’s a conditon build, and changes everything
Can work great as a mixed build with FT indeed.

I see what you’re getting at.. Ok, lets try a condi high evasive build. Where do I start?

this is more or less a common HGH build I think:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQJAqalspCYnvSiF87IyoCdmoH5HlNZfe8WpFEC-jUxAYLACEQyvIasl4ioxqqJiqFCY0CA-w

grenades…
The elite can be supply crate, I took the elixir X because it adds another elixir for HGH and condi cleansing. This one works with Lyssa by the way BUT it removes the stability from the elixir and replaces it with the shorter stability of Lyssa!
So still not good

Never seen a HGH Elixir Gun build, but i’ll make one for you anyhow

Now I see why the HGH builds are so powerful. Wow. But I actually like the kits a lot more than elixirs. So If I’m going for condition this would be a must?

HGH is our strongest build, that’s for sure. But that doesn’t mean non-HGh builds don’t work.
Especially since you mention WvW and pve.

For high level fractals and high ranked tpvp I would say HGH, and possibly a Static Discharge burst build…
But luckily not in general play.

I hate elixirs myself, don’t feel like what I want an engineer to be… so I never go HGH

Black Cat.1024:

Black Cat.1024:

Kimbald.2697:

Black Cat.1024:

And I didn’t answer your question. I’m open to suggestions but I guess I was aiming for a P/P and elixir gun swap most of the time.

that’s a conditon build, and changes everything
Can work great as a mixed build with FT indeed.

I see what you’re getting at.. Ok, lets try a condi high evasive build. Where do I start?

I switched it up a bit.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQJAqal0pqbn1y3F1LJxoCdG0j8WX8KSR+x8nCsF-jUyAYLhQSUAJCI5wioxWaRrvERjqbMdMRUt5uIa1CBMaBA-w

What’s wrong now? haha, I’m actually enjoying this, It’s been a long time since I’ve played a class I didn’t know like the back of my hand.

I would take Juggernaut over napalm specialist (even though that’s a good trait), or replace one of the ‘Trigger’ traits. Because let’s face it: if you swap from FT to EG to dual pistol… you’ll never use all the cooldowns to their fullest.

And Deadly Mixture over Blood Injection, since your vitality is a bit low anyhow.
Yes, that’s power damage instead of condittion… but with FT it ends up a mixed build anyhow.

Runes of the undeath are a cheap and good toughness-condi build option.

2 battle sigils don’t stack, and with high crit you can take earth or battle. But you’ll need a second sigil with no cooldown at all (5% crit, even more burning duration to reach 33% trait + 10% sigil + 10% Explosives Traitline use)
For example: 33% trait 10% sigil 10% Explosives 10% from one Givers weapon + 40% food = 100% burning duration added !
(103% but it caps at 100…)

Gratz by the way, you arrived at a balanced FT-EG p/p build

Black Cat.1024:

Kimbald.2697:

Black Cat.1024:

And I didn’t answer your question. I’m open to suggestions but I guess I was aiming for a P/P and elixir gun swap most of the time.

that’s a conditon build, and changes everything
Can work great as a mixed build with FT indeed.

I see what you’re getting at.. Ok, lets try a condi high evasive build. Where do I start?

this is more or less a common HGH build I think:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQJAqalspCYnvSiF87IyoCdmoH5HlNZfe8WpFEC-jUxAYLACEQyvIasl4ioxqqJiqFCY0CA-w

grenades…
The elite can be supply crate, I took the elixir X because it adds another elixir for HGH and condi cleansing. This one works with Lyssa by the way BUT it removes the stability from the elixir and replaces it with the shorter stability of Lyssa!
So still not good

Never seen a HGH Elixir Gun build, but i’ll make one for you anyhow

Macros.6120:

Heh… I just had an idea for a gimmick power build with Coated Bullets. Inspired by the time I gunned down three people trying to rally a fourth with nothing but the exponentially increasing number of explosions.

This is last night’s experiment for me:
bit odd, as usual, but it was fun

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQJAqelIqaZ37ynF1LJx4DdO8B8DShe57HFyttA-jkxAYLACEARAM5XEN2ScR0YV1ER1CBMaBA-w

(don’t mind the runes and gear, just filled in general stuff.)

Main hand pistol is never going to kill someone on it’s own, so it’s not about condi damage. just the utility and coated bullets to hit groups with.

The obvious choice would be to take grenades instead of mine and go 30 Exploisves and maybe even 30 Inventions for healing bombs (something I ran for a while in fact).

but like you, I wanted a piercing shots build without being an actual condition build

Black Cat.1024:

And I didn’t answer your question. I’m open to suggestions but I guess I was aiming for a P/P and elixir gun swap most of the time.

that’s a conditon build, and changes everything
Can work great as a mixed build with FT indeed.

You seem to go for a power build?
If so, consider the rifle because pistols scream condition damage, while rifle shouts power.

On a power build, the burning on crit is less important.
Rocket Boots toolbelt skill, and Flamethrower toolbelt skill can give you enough burning to keep the 10% damage boost for Flamethrower #1 as you engage the fight.
Use FT toolbelt long before the fight, so it stays as a buff and the cooldown is almost done when the fight starts, for another use.
This means you can do without the trait that gives burning on crit.

If it’s about the coolness of the flamethrower, than consider Juggernaut. It gives 6 stacks of might utterly untraited or unsupported by runes.

If yes to the Juggernaut, consider 3 pairs of might duration runes (2 of a different set for 2 set bonus stacking).

If going power-might, Flamethrower mayhem, ask yourself why you want the Elixir Gun.
Possible answers are: it gives a stunbreaker in the toolbelt. It gives condition cleansing in the #5 super elixir.
But damage wise in a power build, only #4 will land IF you manage to keep your enemy in it first!

You could use Slick Shoes instead of EG for maximum mobility, or net turret (do take sitting duck trait if at all posible than), mines for more knockback…
First answer the question for yourself on Elixir Gun or not, than take it from there.

Black Cat.1024:

Kimbald.2697:

Black Cat.1024:

Got it, thanks!
From your experience, how much uptime on swiftness and dodges in\out of combat? (With speedy kits)

I would have to time the actual seconds between sets of 2 dodges with invigorating speed.
I’m sure others have done that and could answer it without needing to test first.
My builds very rarely allow me to use 10 points in Alchemy, which is unusual for most engineer builds. Alchemy is our best defense line, but I use less common experiments.

The uptime of swiftness-vigor depends entirely on the kits you use:

- a grenade build for WvW tends to stay in grenades rather long, but as you’re max range you need the speed and dodges less.

- a HGH p/p grenade build will use the pistols a lot, they swap often but only use 1 kit of course at most (rest elixirs).

- a Flamethrower coupled with an Elixir gun will swap very very often, giving you full uptime. A few use Flamethrower for longer periods, which works very well in pve.

- med kit is an in and out swapping all the time if you want to get the most of it. That one is the summum of micro-managing kits. but if you do: it’s our best self heal available (turret best group heal).
Med kit coupled with ’on heal runes) and weapon swap sigils, and maybe might proc trait, gives you loads of effects just from healing…

- no stays in Tool Kit or bomb kit for whole fights I think. Here it simply depends if you use them alone or with other kits.

long rant just to say : ‘it depends…’

I understand. Seeing as this is my first try I would like to run this by you.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcEQJAqal0pqbn1y3F1LJyoCdGoH5VdNiiKkffUMfsFA-jEyAYrASBAJBAJvioxWFLiGruGT5SEVbwLiWtQAjWAA-w
This is me trying to spec some mobility, With a DPS based build that relies on condition duration for the 2% more damage each condition. What would you change here? My play style is very mobile, being used to the thief, so I guess I’m sacrificing some damage. On the other hand, I’m used to being squishy as a worm, so dodging is something I know how to do.

you’re mixing up 2 builds actually, and not sure to a good result

For starters: if you use FT-EG you best take the 15% damage increase from 20 points in Alchemy (deadly mixture). Neither Flamethrower nor Elixir Gun do enough damage untraited. The 15% is power damage alone by the way, not conditions.

Dual pistols work fine, but they really shine in a HGH build.

Defenitely take a sigil that procs on weapon swap or on crit. Flamethrower hits 10 times on #1 auto-attack, all of those can crit.
And when using 2 kits, you swap a lot.
Either of these will far outshine 10% bleed duration.

If you could tell us what the preference is: Flamethrower, Elixir gun, or mostly pistols..; we can help with defining the build more.
You can still keep all of these, but your traits need some more direction to make the build work optimal. hence the question where to put the emphasis.

Last note, bit disapointing:
runes of Lyssa do not recognise our Supply crate as an elite… probably because it’s ‘outside’ of the engineer character itself.
Welcome to the engineer bug list

Sabull.5670:

I’m talking about soloings, where ever.

You’ll get most damage out of flamethrower by using Sigil of Earth and mixed gear setup.
It’s not enough conditions to go all out but neither for power unless you mix it with stuff like SD and rifle rotations.

Mixing in Celestial works very well if you add in Elixir Gun. 10/30/0/20/10 or 10/20/0/30/10.
FT/EG/RB+rifle or P/S, healing turret. Constant short reapplying Burning with 3-5 different sources (counters cleansing), medium bleeds with FT1 and EG3, and 1-2 poison sources.
It plays whole different than the usual engi styles so it’s quite fun to play around if you have good balanced set.

when I use the FT myself, I more or less do what Sabull describes here.
Always coupled with EG, and Rocket boots simply never leave my bar in WvW…

One question for you Sabull:
from you’re experience with this build, if used with p/s, do you think it has enough damage to kill people 1v1 in WvW roaming?
I very often ended up feeling short of killing my actual opponent.
The fighting was fun, but they don’t die in the end

Oh, and would you consider it viable in a group set up in WvW? Or are bombs and mostly grenades still ruling that one?
You did mention it was for soloings, just curious about the group experience with it.

Black Cat.1024:

Got it, thanks!
From your experience, how much uptime on swiftness and dodges in\out of combat? (With speedy kits)

I would have to time the actual seconds between sets of 2 dodges with invigorating speed.
I’m sure others have done that and could answer it without needing to test first.
My builds very rarely allow me to use 10 points in Alchemy, which is unusual for most engineer builds. Alchemy is our best defense line, but I use less common experiments.

The uptime of swiftness-vigor depends entirely on the kits you use:

- a grenade build for WvW tends to stay in grenades rather long, but as you’re max range you need the speed and dodges less.

- a HGH p/p grenade build will use the pistols a lot, they swap often but only use 1 kit of course at most (rest elixirs).

- a Flamethrower coupled with an Elixir gun will swap very very often, giving you full uptime. A few use Flamethrower for longer periods, which works very well in pve.

- med kit is an in and out swapping all the time if you want to get the most of it. That one is the summum of micro-managing kits. but if you do: it’s our best self heal available (turret best group heal).
Med kit coupled with ’on heal runes) and weapon swap sigils, and maybe might proc trait, gives you loads of effects just from healing…

- no stays in Tool Kit or bomb kit for whole fights I think. Here it simply depends if you use them alone or with other kits.

long rant just to say : ‘it depends…’

Dworg.1057:

well…

But, Stabilized Armor doesn’t stack with foods (loaf of saffron Bread), that gives -20% damage while stunned, knocked down or knocked back, and -20% conditions duration ?
because, it’s same kind of buffs ?

I actually think it does stack with foods, since food gives an icon and the trait does not.
But to be honest: I never tested this. I could ask a guild thief for a test… but that’s obviously spvp only and the food doesn’t work there.

Going on the icons only, I think they stack.

So my guess is that you can reach:
- 20% from trait
- 33% from protection (trait)
- 20 % from food.

Black Cat.1024:

Kimbald.2697:

My conclusion on the best mobility options for WvW and pve to a lesser extend:

1. rocket boots, simply love those
2. speedy kits, in and out of combat this shines since I Always use at least one damage kit.
3. Invigorating speed to couple with speedy kits. This one can be made up by other things (like shield and tool kit blocks etc…) that’s why I consider it the last of the 3.
Some wouldn’t live without it, mind you. I put it last as a personal playstyle choice.

And this brings me to another question!
Does “Invigorating Speed” stack with “Adrenal Implant”? Or does this just go by the vigor usage as it’s regeneration is higher?

they don’t stack…
Vigor overrides it indeed.
The only saving grace for the 30 point trait is that vigor is a removable boon, that that 50% trait is not. But to be honest: no one cares

You could consider Power with condition DURATION instead of actual condition damage.
It will keep the burns on longer, still providing the 10% damage boost.
It will also keep the weakness and bleeds tick longer if you use the elixir gun with your FT.

Mind you: it requires trait points, giver’s weapons, runes and food if you want to dedicate a build to this.
Not all necessarily, but at least several of these.

My conclusion on the best mobility options for WvW and pve to a lesser extend:

1. rocket boots, simply love those
2. speedy kits, in and out of combat this shines since I Always use at least one damage kit.
3. Invigorating speed to couple with speedy kits. This one can be made up by other things (like shield and tool kit blocks etc…) that’s why I consider it the last of the 3.
Some wouldn’t live without it, mind you. I put it last as a personal playstyle choice.

Black Cat.1024:

You misunderstand me. I’m not asking if engineers are as mobile as thieves, because obviously ANet made thieves to be the most mobile class. This is not a comparison thread, just a question. How mobile is the engineer?
How do you utilize in combat mobility, and how do you utilize out of combat mobility?

was typing the more usefull answer as you replied already
I know my first post was too general for what you were asking, my bad.

As for some details:
the vigor on swiftness (10 point trait) is more usefull than the 30 point trait of 50% faster endurance regen.
Well, if you use kits with speedy kits…
Neither actually ammount to 3 dodges back to back, they simply give you less time between your normal double dodges.

By the way: if you use kits in pvp, you’ll swap often anyhow. Speedy Kits isn’t about micro-manangement so much. It more comes naturally as a bonus when using kits as they seem to be designed: swap in and out quite often.

25 % speed in combat is usefull because of the combat speed reduction. But that trait is in an odd place, only a few builds actually use 20 points or more in Inventions (healing bombs support build being the most prominent one, turret sillyness being the odd one )
Silly thing: if using healing bombs and the 25% speed boost… you run out of every single heal bomb range! You do that on normal speed already for most, add 25% speed and you’re long gone by the time the bomb heals…

For mobility Rocket Boots is one of the most fun and usefull abilities.
They no longer break stun, but they still free you of immobilise, cripple and chill.
Especially in WvW they shine: there the cc locks you in place before the stun hits you.
Rocket boots are the major life saver in WvW when a big group hits you.
Now that they move you forward, you can even aim to reach a keep door with it, and almost roll inside

Is anything as mobile as thieves?
Especially in combat?

My engineer is as fast as our fastest ele in the group when moving about.
In combat I hop all over the place.

But am I as mobile as a thief in combat?
Heck no…

I do agree Rocket Boots should be an evade while flying.
That’s the main lacking feature of it, compared to simular abilities.

As for Toolkit: speed up the auto-attack a bit and I think that kit is a very well-rounded set.
Compared to bombs, the Tool kit lacks damage. That’s all. Both are melee, and bombs are even aoe, so there is no reason Tool kit should do less.

If the Elixir Gun auto-attack is used to show how weak another weapon is… dam, than it must be really bad.
EG hits slow and soft as it is.

Under water I use grenades, even unspecced allthough I usually have 30 points in Explosives anyhow these days. So it’s easy to trait grenadier on the spot for me.
If not grenades, than my healing bombs but being melee underwater is the most disorienting thing ever.

Other than grenades I use Elixir Gun indeed, but I simply hate the way EG5 Super Elixir works underwater. Still, I use EG in my normal build, so I keep it underwater.

Speargun? It has some nice utilities, but that’s about all I do with it. If I remember to use those at all…

I don’t object to the idea of giving engineers torment. we are a profession relying on cc to a large extend as it is.

But I wouldn’t put it on pistol ofhand, because our strongest build (HGH p/p) would become even stronger, while other builds hardly would benefit (kits, p/s, rifle SD…).

You know what could use torment and open up build options?
A turret!
Or the Tool kit as suggested, or the Mortar indeed (yuk…).
Basically: less used utilities that open more builds without making our strongest option stronger.

tl,dr:
Torment? Yes please.
On Blowtorch? No, rather not.

SmallCat.7413:

Kimbald.2697:

SmallCat.7413:

Kimbald.2697:

alternative solution:

let the effect heal you, and everybody in a XXX radius of the bomb.

What’s the difference?
It heals you, no matter where the radius itself is.

What’s the risk?
If you are in the radius, you might get 2 heals.
One for the ‘you’ part, and another for the ‘all in radius’ part.
While that would certainly make the healing better, it is probably not intended to get doube healing like that.

Bomb heal need in radius,you can try in mists. Backpack regenerator that is no need radius.

what are you saying?
I know bombs need you to be in radius, of course they do…

That’s where the suggestion comes from.

Ok,i wrong. That is a good idea.

Not sure if it would solve everything but it would be better than constantly running out of your own bomb radius and missing the heal.

They could make it that the bomb heals you wherever you are, and the aoe heal does not effect you but only others.
This way you get 1 heal and not 2 which could be considered too strong for the devs.

SmallCat.7413:

Kimbald.2697:

alternative solution:

let the effect heal you, and everybody in a XXX radius of the bomb.

What’s the difference?
It heals you, no matter where the radius itself is.

What’s the risk?
If you are in the radius, you might get 2 heals.
One for the ‘you’ part, and another for the ‘all in radius’ part.
While that would certainly make the healing better, it is probably not intended to get doube healing like that.

Bomb heal need in radius,you can try in mists. Backpack regenerator that is no need radius.

what are you saying?
I know bombs need you to be in radius, of course they do…

That’s where the suggestion comes from.

alternative solution:

let the effect heal you, and everybody in a XXX radius of the bomb.

What’s the difference?
It heals you, no matter where the radius itself is.

What’s the risk?
If you are in the radius, you might get 2 heals.
One for the ‘you’ part, and another for the ‘all in radius’ part.
While that would certainly make the healing better, it is probably not intended to get doube healing like that.

EFL is a smaller roaming guild that came to RoS as well, just like WAR we come from WSR.

Last night we tried to do what smaller guilds can do: take camps, do hit and run fights, take a few towers, and yes: we even trebbed Bay

We had loads of fun last night, and thanks for all the ones who came at us.

We won’t be the ‘big’ guild, but we do try to make a difference in our own way.

For reference: I’m the little jumpy engineer Asura, had a Flamethrower last night, but that is always open for discussion.

Phineas Poe.3018:

In PvE I run the FT/EG with 0/25/0/20/25. Full Zerker. More info in my signature.

In WvW I run the FT/EG with 0/25/15/20/10. Mostly Celestial and Soldier armor these days.

a small variation on the WvW build I tend to use, is taking the 5 points away from Firearms (so the 5% on bleeding targets) and put them in tools to reset my stunbreaker from EG at 25% health, as well as the reset of the healing turret.

Survivability over damage?
Always the question in WvW…

I forgot to mention: on swap sigils (like Hydromancy, but battle for might too) activate whenever you swap in or out of a kit.
Only limit is the internal cooldown of the sigil itself (being 9 or 10 seconds usually).

if not using a kit, an on-swap sigil will never proc for an engineer, mind you.

pistol-shiled is not a strong set up for damage. It keeps you alive, but won’t kill much.
Rifle will do more, but since you also mention getting killed, the shield might be good

2 suggestions for leveling:
1. try bomb kit, or grenade kit, or even flamethrower for better damage (if not rifle).
2. Rocket boots are great: they get you out of most bad situations, and the toolbelt is actually good damage.

a ‘plus damage’ bonus (like 15% for Flamethrower and elixir gun, or Target the Maimed) is ALWAYS power based ‘white’ damage only. never conditions.

Might, of course, effects both.

In a HGH build I assume you use Healing Elixir, so i’m not sure if that cooldown is worth the might stacking.
But target the Maimed for pistols… that’s not going to do much in a condition build. It’s something, but nowhere near 5%.
But why not take the 2% per condition? Think that is your best dps option (unless restarting and going grenades).

For pure pistol set up I would go 10/30/0/30/0 in your build.

most HGH p/p builds squeeze in one kit like grenades (offense) or tool kit (defense).
In which case 10 in Tools for Speedy Kits would be a good option
Mind you: do not take grenades unless you specc them, which would totally change your build.

Few quick answers, and I’ll try and get to the build calcualtor later.

Shield in big fights?
Yes, but mostly offensive actually.
The thrown shield pierces… great opener when you’re running in.
Bit like Throw wrench is, if you have that.

If the zerg hits you, than the shield reflect is your best friend.
just pushback in the end for anything that got onto you.

Shield cooldowns are too long, they should be untraited what they are traited. That’s my only gripe with the shield. Well, that and the fact that pistol main hand never kills anyone on it’s own.

What healing skill?
Group fight: healing turret out of harm’s way a bit if possible, it has a large radius for a healing skill! Put it next to a ranger Healing Spring to see how big it is.
Runes of altruism have a bugged cooldown of 15 seconds = healing turret overcharge if kept up.
In really big fights: deploy, overcharge, detonate.
Than you have 20 sec cooldown of course.

Med kit if you want to be mobile.
It’s the best personal heal we have.
My issue with med kit in bigger fights: often allies eat up my bandages, or worse: my 2 elixirs. since you can drop them ontop of someone in front of you and than you can’t even run through them.
Runes of Altruism + med kit : permanent fury and 3 stacks of might, and the swiftness of course.

Conditions?
Healing turret overcharge (2 conditions), or med kit #4 (2 as well)
And of course EG Super elixir #5. But be sure to stand in it.
Here the food can come in play: med kit + remove condition when using healing skill works quite well.
Still works well if you can let the turret out.

other food
less damage when stunned if running around alone.
longer condition duration if running with a group.

Runes
Altruism is just one of my options, I like vampirism in a more bunkery set up (despite the bug).
pick boon duration, or simple might duration 3x 2 set bonus.
Mostly depends if you run group support or solo kill, or simply: best dps this build can get…

lastly: my playstyle
I hop in and out all the time, I support people around me, and I annoy enemies where I can.
I never go for the solo kill, allthough I don’t back out of duels if they come up.
I’m extremely mobile, wich makes me a hard target. Yet if they ignore me, a support build can turn the battle.
The new and improved Rocket Boots are the essence of my playstyle: I over-extend, I escape, I chase fast runners and am hard to chase myself.
Elixir gun is the support part, but as said: EG damage is simply too low. Simple solution: let Juggernaut effect EG…

Usually I sacrifice a bit too much damage for more fun, every once in a while I end up wondering how I can’t kill anything…
But since I do mostly WvW with a small group, I am often the one keeping our real dps alive, or simply the last one standing and getting out alive.

Assassin.7890:

Then I want to ask which runes you use in PvE and do you have different sets and weapons for WvW?
And please, please explain me how to work with EG in a PvP kind of scenario. I fail to use it in the right situations..

kind regards
Pi

In WvW I often take out my might stacking sigils (battle or strenght), and use a weapon with sigil of hydromancy instead. At least when doing small scale stuff.
The reason is when I’m attacked and stunned.
You can always swap to a kit when stunned, so when someone stuns me I swap and chill him.
For example: I’m in FT to keep might up and I’m stunned. I blind him (see below tip for FT), and swap to pistol shield. If needed I break stun with EG Toolbelt, and block with my shield.
Not bullet proof, just an example.

I use runes of altruism at the moment, and I think that in small scale WvW (5 – 15 guild group for me), it really helps buffing the high damage dealers of our group a bit.
Other runes can work too.

I use the same in pve, since in a 5 man dungeon I play support anyhow.

Wich brings me to the Elixir Gun:
I believe it is the best rounded kit we have, even if it is the least flashy one!

Uses in pvp (WvW for me):
it has a stunbreaker on a pretty low cooldown, even lower if you spend points in Tools.
With 15 points in Tools it also resets at 25%, which is a life saver. you don’t have to save it, you’re free to use it early and still get it again.
And a stunbreaker that gives regen is pretty handy.
Very important: it’s on the toolbelt so always reachable.

Skill #3 skill is weak, but it’s a condition cleanse on your team members, both in pve as pvp. use it on them, not the enemy so much. If you poison the enemy, that’s a bonus.

Skill #2 is slow, that blob.
It’s ok to use it from far, but expect it to be dodged most of the time.
Try using it up close, it will give you and others swiftness as well.
Small tip: the first hit can be dodged, but a bounce can not I believe.
So hit the pet with it, or a downed player, in order to have it jump to your real target.
Same goes for pistol #3 by the way.

Skill #4 is awesome.
it’s best when you can immobilize or cripple them first, but it can really hit hard.
it’s an escape and it’s a blast finisher.
Use #2 up close, jump out with #4.

Skill #5 is an extra condition removal if nothing else.
Just make sure you’re always in the initial landing spot because it only cleanses conditions on impact.
Shoot through it with #1 to cleanse conditions on other players in the path (not on you unless some buggy short distance to target).
The heal is nice by the way.

Skill #1 is weak for pvp in terms of damage, but it will stop a high damage dealer from annihilating you (or a friend) if you need to survive.
It also reduces endurance regen, which is extremely helpfull to chase runners. They dodge your slow #2 blob? Not so much if you hit them with #1 all the time…

Small pvp tip on the Flamethrower:

the #5 blind is really short melee range, but it is usable when stunned!
So if you used your EG stunbreaker toolbelt, and still get stunned: swap to FT (hydron$mancy proc maybe) and use #5. That’s at least one hit they are not getting in.

Now, if you’re into max might stacking, all by yourself (more pve than pvp), than try this little routine:

Flamethrower fire field #4.
Swap out of FT to shield. Use shield blast #4 double tap fast.
Swap to EG and jump back with #4
Jump back with rocket boots, the landing hits in the fire before the roll: another blast finisher in a fire field!

Practice without the shield first to get the timing of the 2 jumps, when you’re confident with it, try timing the shield in it as well.
It works better with a bomb fire field. EG-Bomb kit is a solid support build as it is.
But than you wouldn’t have Juggernaut for yourself of course…

That’s 6 to 9 stacks of might for you and your group just from that.
Sigil of battle would likely add 3 more to it.

I could settle for the compromise of hding either backpack or kit bag.
Of course that always shows something, but that’s why it would be a compromise.

ybz.6547:

Kimbald.2697:

A small plea for the fun of fighting:

Last night, let’s say about midnight to 3pm GMT, in EB we had quite fun smaller fights on the road between our WSR spawn and ‘our’ keep… wich wasn’t ours anymore of course.
For some reason that keep of ours looked blue.

Anyhow, we had several people talking things over on the stairs, next to a bored golem in fact.
And we also had a few ‘pushing’ forward while there was nowhere to go in the end.

The fights were mostly on the road and up to the stairs of the keep.
Enemy players I noticed were, among others: a grenadier engi (as an engi myself that made it personal to me)

That was probably me. I completly agree that the use of cannons was needless after it had become clear that you did not intend to siege Lowlands. When your spawn suddenly spitted out that golem (an omega iirc), we expected a serious attack. We also pushed once or twice, out of cannon range, with casualities on our side.

I for one kept granade throwing range to you, but couldn’t do much more without anyone in front of me, due to my zerg build and not having exotics yet (I’m a rather fresh player and just recently hit 80, yay!).

You guys did for sure a good job keeping our backs against the keep walls.

Anyway, props to you and everybody who keeps fighting for WSR without QQ. I hope we will have awesome and balanced fights between our three worlds in the future.

Oh yes, that was you
My goal usually was just to get to you, despite canons, guards and other players… and force you to back of if I could.
Yes, at the risk of being stomped in the process.
Nothing personal, just an engi to engi thing.

About the golem: it was parked from a previous assault and someone decided to take it for a spin (literally) and got told to not take it outside of guard range.
Nice that it got you nervous though…

For yor gear: karma is your friend, you can go far on grenades with some ptv Orr pieces added to it.
Just till you can get the full beserker set if you want.

My guild has left the building and I suppose i’ll follow (bit reluctant), so not sure if we’ll meet again in battle.

Thanks for the fight and have fun.

Kreten.9208:

Kimbald.2697:

Kreten.9208:

A couple of things about WSR, we had 3 major guilds in WvW. WBC, TEO and WAR. WBC and TEO have gone, and i have heard that WAR is going (has gone) as well. Correct me if i am wrong.

This is an enourmous blow to WSR, and as someone said, any gain that FOW/Vabbi get out of this was deserved only on the merit of having waited long enough that ALL our main guilds decided to go to greener pastures.

All those guilds that left or are in the process of it are very good at WvW especially WBC. I know, i have been on RC with them quite a lot. I have respect for “the guilds”

But please dont say you left to balance T9 or Grow as a guild or something. You left becasue either: A) You were bored winning against FOW/Vabbi all the time. And Bored of loosing agains everyone else (even though you were great when outnumbered) and C) Because the other guild(s) left.

EFL left too, which was the next in line in terms of size in WvW I think.

And the guilds left because they wanted even fights more, not being zerged or zerg the others.
More balanced fights, which are hard to come by in WvW as it is, and almost impossible in WSR…

this won’t work out on every server as hoped, but WSR had extremely bad balance conditions in their match-ups, the fun was gone. Almost nothing you do makes a difference, a minute later the zerg arrives and you lose all progress without a fighting chance.

And of course once a guild decides to leave, the others are forced to either stay in an even more weakened server, or leave as well.

none of the guilds left to have it easy, I think they all left to be challenged in the end.

Well, anyway, i wish them all the best, and i hope they enjoy their new homes and that the blobs running around in the higher tiers don’t lag the server too much.

EFL and WAR didn’t jump that far up, the lag will be doable where they are. At least not much worse than WSR.
The others I’m not so sure about.

I orginated at Piken Square but actually dropped down because the queues ate up too much of my limited time, and than the lag ruined the rest of my evening…
And that only T3 or 4.
Much has to do with my pc of course, but still it’s a main issue in this game’s wvw.

And I also wish the guilds the best of luck, a few I will still be seeing on RoS.

Mostly I hope WSR can get their fun back, even with fewer numbers.
If all 3 low pop wvw servers even out a bit, it could be great fighting still!

I keybind everything, and yet I still think this is one of the most useless rants I have ever read on these forums…

Get over yourself already.

Put it in the tech forums perhaps, if you really must.

Kreten.9208:

A couple of things about WSR, we had 3 major guilds in WvW. WBC, TEO and WAR. WBC and TEO have gone, and i have heard that WAR is going (has gone) as well. Correct me if i am wrong.

This is an enourmous blow to WSR, and as someone said, any gain that FOW/Vabbi get out of this was deserved only on the merit of having waited long enough that ALL our main guilds decided to go to greener pastures.

All those guilds that left or are in the process of it are very good at WvW especially WBC. I know, i have been on RC with them quite a lot. I have respect for “the guilds”

But please dont say you left to balance T9 or Grow as a guild or something. You left becasue either: A) You were bored winning against FOW/Vabbi all the time. And Bored of loosing agains everyone else (even though you were great when outnumbered) and C) Because the other guild(s) left.

EFL left too, which was the next in line in terms of size in WvW I think.

And the guilds left because they wanted even fights more, not being zerged or zerg the others.
More balanced fights, which are hard to come by in WvW as it is, and almost impossible in WSR…

this won’t work out on every server as hoped, but WSR had extremely bad balance conditions in their match-ups, the fun was gone. Almost nothing you do makes a difference, a minute later the zerg arrives and you lose all progress without a fighting chance.

And of course once a guild decides to leave, the others are forced to either stay in an even more weakened server, or leave as well.

none of the guilds left to have it easy, I think they all left to be challenged in the end.

FlamingForce.6389:

Get used to the fact that you simply can’t beat everything no matter what build or class you run.

I don’t think that’s the issue.

The OP wants to learn and improve himself, I see nothing wrong with that.

It’s not because a build can counter you, that you shouldn’t try…

Fake it.

First attack him with something as silly as an autoattack even, and go ranged and shoot him, he will first block, than reflect most likely (I would…).
That’s his shield utilities gone right there.

Untraited cooldowns are 30 and 40 seconds, traited that is 24 and 32 but not many trait the shield since they need the points elsewhere in most builds.

Anyhow, the cooldowns are pretty long.
What he will do after you restealth and try again, depends entirely on his build.
Does he have a toolkit for another block? Does he have bombs he starts spamming at his feet? Is he grenading where he hopes you run?

The shield is my favourite engineer weapon, but the cooldowns are long and that’s its main weakness.
Your biggest strenght is that you can reset the fight.
The combination of the shields weakness and your strenght could work in your favour.
Abuse that.

Best advice I can come up with.

I’ve been seeing this for quite some time on my Asura.
Months, at least. Possibly it has been around since the start.

Many engineers are either Asura or Charr, for obvious reasons, and over at the engi forum we mention this bug as something that just is there and never fixed…

It’s good you point it out of course, but somehow I doubt the dev’s aren’t aware yet.

As a side note: I find it rather annoying that as an engineer especially, pressin the notes will get kit effects like might from my Juggernaut Flamethrower, as well as heal effect like might and fury from using healing spell (Runes of altruism).
Not seeing the icons pop us as such, but hearing their effect sounds and having my character saying the lines that go with certain effects like might.

Am I really forced to play in townes clothes only?
I like my gear…

I’m not going to combat you know, just disable all of these effects please.

Other than that: the changed stop function on the same key is indeed terribly annoying, glad you’re reverting it.

Psychotic.3560:

Kimbald.2697:

Psychotic.3560:

No mercy for you lot after our last match up! :P

Wich one of the group were you last night?
You were there, right?
Would be silly to reply like that if you weren’t, so I’m curious which one was you.

Thinking about it, I might have left just before midnight but I did spend quite a bit of time defending that bloody keep from 50-60 WSR. My group was the one with all the Jd tags, so if you didn’t see us then you probably popped on after we left for the night. I remember seeing around 30 WAR, but not many other Guilds out in number iirc.

But after Sunday night with that huge zerg appearing out of nowhere at 11pm I can understand people not going into open fights in front of your spawn.

we did have a commander there till about midnight indeed.
I wouldn’t call that part a skirmish, he meant business

Very often we have known commanders being bored and rallying people to one map or the other out of nowhere, without a real plan in advance.
My guess that is what happened sunday. All it takes is someone to figure: hey, we can take this lot at our stairs, hang on, I’ll call ma friends.

As for WAR: think they had their last raid night on WSR so they came full force indeed.
Other guilds weren’t there as big groups, just bits and pieces.
frankly: we hardly have any big guilds left: WBC, TEO and EFL were already on other servers last night, and WAR was leaving after that fight.
There are more, but not many who have large numbers.

After midnight it all slowed down though, and that’s when the skirmishing began.
I remember there was a big difference in the ammount of people you had as well. It was very clear raid time was over on your side too.

And I fully understand you don’t come to our steps, why would you even, can’t take the place anyhow.
And I understand even more you blow us to pieces when we come out full force.

But the skirmish I refer to was like 5-10 each side, give or take a few.
That’s when ac’s and canons make it imposible, which was a bit of a party pooper.

Psychotic.3560:

No mercy for you lot after our last match up! :P

not asking for mercy
With or without the canons, we had nothing and could take nothing.
There was only one choice: have fights, or have no fights at all.
The canons and ac’s forced that choice to: have no fights…

I saw the fight last night seperate from the actual battle, since it was useless in a strategic sense.
All it pretended to be was a skirmish between people wanting to have some fun in WvW but had no numbers to do something significant.

in the end it’s simple: you get some fights that late, or you don’t…
One after the other of our little bunch simply stopped bothering.
Which leaves you with the map, but no fun to be had.

we had a handfull of players in EB that late, we were all WSR you had left to play against in there.

It’s ok that you want to fight under ac and canon fire I guess.
I’m surprised you need it to be honest, but hey if you don’t feel secure without it.
My observation was that you lot did fine as it was.

Wich one of the group were you last night?
You were there, right?
Would be silly to reply like that if you weren’t, so I’m curious which one was you.

A small plea for the fun of fighting:

Last night, let’s say about midnight to 3pm GMT, in EB we had quite fun smaller fights on the road between our WSR spawn and ‘our’ keep… wich wasn’t ours anymore of course.
For some reason that keep of ours looked blue.

Anyhow, we had several people talking things over on the stairs, next to a bored golem in fact.
And we also had a few ‘pushing’ forward while there was nowhere to go in the end.

The fights were mostly on the road and up to the stairs of the keep.
Enemy players I noticed were, among others: a grenadier engi (as an engi myself that made it personal to me), a ranger who hated me, a mesmer in a whitish dress, a warrior, a thief…

I was that little Asura engi with the flamethrower and the complete lack of sense.
Yes, the jumpy one.
My guild tag is EFL (last of the few in WSR in fact).

I never backed down of a fight and kept hopping back and forth.
You guys fought great by the way, no complaints there.
I think several of you could have gotten me all by yourself, partly because I have a more group build.

But here my little rant starts:
you already had the veterans of course, they were like constant spawning pets for you guys
But the annoying part were the canons and arrow carts.
At times I got downed because i over-extended (again…) and I saw myself surrounded by 4 guards, 2 players and in the middle of a canon and ac circle…

we can’t fight in siege range, sorry, just no way for us to survive.

So the options are:
1. we don’t come that far, and you guys don’t come near our legendary defenders and everybody gets bored to death.
We didn’t have the numbers for a full blown real attack on that keep or any tower so the skirmish was all we had.

2. we fail at ‘organising’ something in open field, which probably will take away all the spontanous fun out of the whole thing.
And yes: it sure was fun

3. You ask your friends to step out of the siege and come fight on the ground.
As for the canons: if we group up with 3 or 4 to destroy them… don’t jump us with 10.
You don’t need those canons at that point.

I prefer option 3.
The guards aren’t controlable, so we can take those.

Please note that I appreciate the fun fight yesterday, and a big thanks for that.
But it simply got boring because of the big red cirkles.
And let’s face it: it wasn’t as if we would take our keep back at that point. All of us down there simply did it for the fun.
As I think you guys and gals did.

For reference: this is me:

imaginary.6241:

Lurpaq.7586:

well thats depressing. what is the new wvw/pvp engi build then?

Good morning! That ’s the new Meta:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqalIqaZX8y2F2bJyoCMWoHSIoZYgKUXiKgZfKQfA-jwyA0DAiDYVrIasqZioa9Nm9GygDb0Rt6YmdEDPgQAfnEA-e

I hope you get what I’m trying to say …

Why not healing elixir?

1. How did 100 nades die?
Kit refinement no longer procs an extra barrage of grenades, wich was essential to the burst of 100 nades, and in combo with the actual toolbelt barrage, the reason it was called ‘100 nades’…

2. New pvp builds are either:
- HGH pistol/pistol condition damage build
- to a lesser extend a static discharge bursty power-crit rifle build
- bit more ‘bunker’ versions with Juggernaut flamethrower for example

All of these builds have their own threads (search engine) and are somewhere, in multiple versions, in the ‘show your build’ sticky.

I figured I might as well give a clear answer.
Thing is: your question is soooo outdated most people will probably assume you’re trolling

SmallCat.7413:

Because engineer almost all weapon kit’s skills are condition,power damage skills are less(almost skill 1).Generally Condition engineer have two weapon kits,in pvp he just use pistol -> weapon kit one -> weapon kit two,and turn to pistol continue.There are less use auto skill one,even swap weapon can make target bleed too(Sigil of Geomancy).so condition engineer is powerful.

Look at power engineer,there is little Non-automatic skills of weapon kit provide fire.So rifle engineer have two way to reducing disparities: 1.Chose static discharge trait to keep firepower in rifle skill cd time. 2.Chose power wrench trait to support tool kit and rifle.No matter which way,pistol is powerful than rifle.Rifle is mid-short range,tool kit is short range,engineer need a long-mid range,power damage weapon kit.
This is my idea, how you think?

Not saying your argument is wrong, but there are a few things you need to consider:

1. long range grenades still work in a power build, even though they work better in a condition build since the #1 nerf of course.
Viable? Yes. The best option? no.

2. Flamethrower is in essence a power based weapon that is best at mid-range.
Conditions matter for the FT because of keeping the burn up of course, but the main bulk of it’s damage is power.

3. Elixir Gun is even more of a mix.
It always hits too weak, but a lot of it’s total damage is power too (that #4 can hit like a truck if you can immobilize them with the utterly nerfed kit refinement for example).

I would like to see a buff to the power portion of pistol #1 myself, or revert the early attack speed nerf to it.
Simply because the shield can fit in a power build very well, and than you’re stuck with the pistol main hand.

It’s main use is to kill the rams, less the players who can move or heal back up.

Grenades still do decent damage on power-crit but not the full max potential you get from conditions.
But would it ‘work’? Yes I think it would, maybe other than the highest rankings pvp or highest level fractals.
But for anything ‘normal’ I’m sure it will.

A lot will depend on what else you can do.

Since you mention condition removal i’m going to guess you want it for pvp or WvW.

If so: in WvW it will work for sure. Freeze grenades are your best friend anyhow in there…
For pvp I’m less experienced to say up to what level of play you can pull it of.

Whoever figured it was a good idea to tie laces to rocket boots should be fired. Tripping over them every dam time…