Guild Wars 2

alright, so:

1) the two builds are different due to lazyness. the first link is there for the build, the second for the gear; I didnt update the traits in the second link as I felt it was unnecessary and too much trouble at the time :p
As I dropped elixir C for toolkit, I found it necessary to trait into 409, leaving potent elixirs out.

2)that grenade build is probably better for spvp, I prefer this build for wvw.

3) I’ve had people telling me it still works in spvp but I can’t really answer that, I havent done spvp in a while and the rune choices would have to be different.

4)alchemy gives 30% boon duration, not condition. I run with 0 condition duration and I don’t find it much of a problem. If Givers weapons were fixed I could probably go with 50%, provided I’d rearrange some pieces to get some of the lost power back. I focus more on reapplying and doing direct damage at the same time rather than betting it all on condition duration.

5) I honestly dont know. When I was running elixir C, I’d at times drop that for pain inverter when condition removal wasn’t an issue. I guess you could always drop B and rely on hidden flask alone, but I don’t like that much.

oh, it’s much better now amadeus, you should remake the first video commentary with this sound setup.

At the moment I have 4 level 80 characters that I play regularly in wvw. I only like doing small scale stuff and I have a craving for fighting heavily outnumbered and winning, either alone or in a small group. When someone new joins the group they get mindblown with the stunts we pull.
I built all my characters around this and they have their respective weaknesses and strengths.
Still, I keep comming back to my engie when things go wrong. When I play my engie I feel it’s easier to do what I want, it’s very tough to kill me, it has a stupid crazy burst with confusion, it has 2 aoe snare puddles, 2 invulns, a short cooldown/cast heal, even retaliation gets enemies to half hp before I even target them. At numerous occasions my buddies get killed and by the time they run back from spawn I’m still there, fighting the same guys they got killed by and still managing to down one or two.
To be fair, I could do the same on my mesmer or thief but I’d have to rely heavily on the soon to be nerfed perma stealth and I still wouldn’t be able to take a beating from 5 guys for so long as the engie does.
I think the engie really shines in small groups and outnumbered fights. As for larger zerg fights, thats just a matter of numbers anyway :p

@goloith while it’s true that I only choose the best clips I recorded, those are not my better fights either. With the engie I go into any 1v2 knowing I’ll win. Sometimes I don’t, but more often than not I do.
Also, I couldn’t disagree more with your assessment of the warrior. Warriors have serious issues, I think they are by far the weakest profession in wvw right now. Pretty much all their skills have huge tells and give you alot of time to evade, blind, LoS, etc. They are also at a loss closing gaps and removing conditions. the only way they can shine is by having a group working for them but then again, so can everyone.
Regarding boon hate as you called it, I’m fine with it, it will probably be nerfed indirectly through more boon stripping options for every class which is a good thing.

it works, just don’t trust the tooltips.

We don’t need bigger maps and I fail to see how that would kill wvw.

We could use some purpose redesign of some dead areas and tie them up to new objectives. This wouldn’t take much resources since it’s all there at the moment anyway: the centaur camp, skritt cave, the lake, the orchard/windmill, harpy/wurm/spider/warg events, etc. These could be made into minor objectives that actually impact the battles like adding them as allies -just like quaggan-, capture a supply cache, unique siege vendors, monster play, etc. Wouldn’t it be cool to defend the centaur camp against invaders instead of just having it there being useless?

Also, like siofra said, we could use some more layers to the map, a cave system or some asura gates that needed to be secured, allowing smaller groups to have a little more freedom and be able to flank or avoid the zergs, instead of adding to them. This would be, I imagine, more complex and tougher on the devs, but it could well be a long term goal, perhaps even linked to the live story thing.

what bromi said.

thanks for that, I missed the engie part.

MeanMug.2630:

Mask….I am new to the Engi forum but not to the Engi. He is 80 and I shelved him to concentrate on my Necro that I use for an organized zerg busting guild group.

I took this build out for a spin and really like the potential. I am mostly spec’d P/P with Rabid gear throughout. I am having success as it is and want to tweak my setup to squeeze as much as i can out of it.

In looking through your gear/upgrade choices, I have a few questions:

-It seems that you will mix in a P/V/C piece every so often, is this random or is there a “minimum number” of these pieces you recommend?

-Why is power relevant? It seems the only thing you are getting is improved Pry Bar numbers but nothing else you are doing scales with power. It seems Rabid (Prec/Tou/CD) would be better all around..?

-Your upgrades (armor) seem to concentrate on boon duration….since confusion is a condition, and seems to be the main damage source, why not go for condition duration (same for food [rare pizza for example])?

-Finally, I think this build has some real potential to step into my necro’s current role but I can’t seem to find a way to get the same stacks of confusion in an AE manner. I know bomb 3 does AE confustion but I am not sure that is a big enough radius or as many/long of stacks. Am I overlooking something that could make this viable?

Thanks in advance!!!

amadeus pretty much answered it all but I’ll explain my take on things

-I go for some specifc stat tresholds, believe it or not the stat I ignore most in this process is condition damage. I aim for 35-40% crit. 1500 power, 1350 toughness, 22k hp and all the cd I can get while keeping around this values. I have gone higher and lower for most of this stats and I found a balance that works for me. it might not be optimal to everyone.

-pistol #1, 2 and 4 scale decently with power. Having your pistol 1 critting for 400-700 (and dont forget it’s aoe) is more worth it to me than improving your condition ticks for 5-10 points of damage. Also, it let’s you double dip into the damage pool, even high condition removal classes like a guardian will have trouble aginst you. As an example, I dueled a tanky guardian on my (condition) necro yesterday: I got destroyed, I could barely scratch him, he had the upper hand the whole fight. Then I fought him on my engie and won 3 out of 3 times, even with his permanent condition removal.
the exception to this is, imo, if you go full out condition duration, that would make it worth it to put all your eggs in one basket and ignore power.

-this is an elixir heavy build, boons are always there. I realized (someone pointed out to me actually) some elementalists and some guardians use this build setup and I applied the same principle to the engineer because we can do it just as well or better than them. besides, each boon is a 1% direct damage boost. this build will still work if you go condition duration/damage of course, it’s better in some situations, worse in others.

-look for amadeus movies regarding bombkit. remember static shot is an aoe skill too, it works even better if it bounces.

Iddiozzia.3489:

Nice!
I still liked more the solo part than the 2 man one, but it’s due to personal taste, it was still pretty good.

Well, some prefered the solo part, others prefered the group part, at least it was a chance for me to show something else and that this build still works in a group.
The group fights are at the limit of what I can record on this pc but we’ve pulled off way better fights than this, I just can’t record them and mantain decent enough framerate to play, I wish I could.

AryasRevenge.3175:

Heya ive got a question for you maska, how can you reach F8 and above keyboard buttons while fighting?

I have extremely long alien-like finger appendages. :p
I’m kidding, skill 6-0 are bound to mouse buttons and those mouse buttons are acting as key strokes.
The reason for this -not that you may care but I’ll tell it anyway :p- is that I used to play lineage 2 some years ago. back then you couldn’t rebind your keys , f1-12 was all you had; a way to go around the limitations was to use mouse software to rebind some mouse buttons to f keys. I still use the same software and the same profile so it survived to this day :p
-it’s also a good way to make your increase/decrease dpi buttons do something more useful-

timidobserver.7925:

I do have one question. Why not put supreme sigil of battle on one of your guns so that you get 3 might stacks every time you go back and forth between toolkit and pistols?

I dunno if it’s worth it since I dont change to toolkit every 10 seconds, I need to test it and check if it pays off more than having the might on crit one.

amiable.4823:

Also Mask, awesome music, that kitten song has been my earwig all week.

thanks, I’m glad you liked it, I experienced the same when I first heard it, such a pearl from the 60s :p

Lebannen.8325:

Not someone who posts videos on Youtube.

I completely agree. :p

Sorry, I haven’t noticed this thread yet; thank you guys who referred me, but I think there’s better suited persons for the job. I pretty much only do wvw nowadays, and I only have one build and it’s variations.

Well timid, I’ve been using this variations of this build since launch and I can tell you without any doubts, guardians aren’t really a problem. Not in 1v1 and not in group fights. The only issue with them is their massive cc if they use hammer, not their condition removal. I’m not saying you won’t find one that beats you, it can happen, but other classes will have less problems doing so.
A class that can give you trouble is necro, they have alot of tools to defeat this build, elixir C helps alot against them, 409 not so much.
Anyway, check out the new vid at https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Paradigm-SHIFT-a-wvw-movie

I changed the link Cube, should be fine now.
Thanks amadeus and siofra.

about the loot bags, I don’t know why I don’t pick some of them up; I guess that between all the keypresses and stuff to keep track of, my brain just prioritizes other stuff over looting.

about the defensive part of this build: I like to think it’s pretty solid, there’s no lack of invulnerability, no lack of condition removal, plenty of swiftness/vigor/protection.
I had a recording of me fighting 2 decent condition thieves at the same time for 8 minutes, I downed them half a dozen times but I could never get the stomp, I think that speaks for itself regarding survivability.

Also, on those 2 larger fights at the end I was running with my guardian buddy (The Tekno Viking) and he has been described as a beast, he helps alot keeping me alive. I found this with my thief when duoing with him: if you force most players to disengage from you often enough (using S, gear block, stealth, cripple, etc or with the thief just perma stealth), they will focus on the slow moving -unkillable- hulk and leave you alone.

@lanny, I see self regulating defense working, but I usually stay away from automatic actions (not boons) if I can. it’s a personal thing, I just don’t like having something happen that can interrupt what I’m doing.

I don’t want to sound like an elitist prick, I know these kinds of posts usually sound like that, it’s not my intention BUT:

you really really really really really should stop clicking skills. you are obviously a good player and your build and playstyle works for you but I’m 100% sure that if you stop mouse clicking your 6-0 f1-f4 skills you will be alot better. Unless there’s some physical problem or other reason not to do it, please practice using the keybinds, try rebinding them to some extra mousebuttons or q/e/r/z/x/c, whatever :p

The build is solid, you should watch some of amadeus’ movies too, he runs with bombkit alot and it wrecks stuff in 1v1. Your fights could be better, but they aren’t bad and I feel your pain when forgetting to press record :p

cheers

sorry, I didnt update the traits in the second link. Yes, I am using 409 instead of potent elixirs now.

My new one ,as promised:

This one also features a few duo fights against superior numbers, aside from the usual 1vX. You might also see more mistakes than usual in those, it happens with all the chaos (trying to stay alive, target calling, teamspeak chatter, etc)…. also trying to adjust to the new stuff.
I hope it’s still entertaining to watch!

All footage was recorded since tuesday.

build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqalspSXnvSyF17IRoC4H0D9mX+K6xjp8kB

gear : http://tinyurl.com/akbukzq

enjoy!

as a bonus, here’s direct download links to my gema blocked videos for those who asked (or those who want the original higher quality ones):

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6180260/RUN.wmv
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6180260/cant%20always%20get.wmv
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6180260/spree.wmv
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6180260/engiewvwroam.wmv

I will remove these shortly (1-2 weeks from now) since I need the space.

cheers!

Thanks for all your comments, I’m probably going to make a new movie today, it will be slightly different since I didnt run solo all that much this week so you’ll likely see a 2v5+5 and a 2vs10+. I might still go in game and try to get more footage, depends on my mood when I get back home :p
I know I can record better fights, it is just tough to get them to happen sometimes.. “oh here’s a nice 1v3, BAM 20 allies show out of nowhere”.
anyway, thanks again ^^

SilverWF.4789:

There is nothing about WvW in this video.
This is ganking, roaming, dueling or even sPvP video, but not WvW, sorry.

you should show us what real wvw is since apparently none of us knows.
I guess you think zerging stuff up is where you see skills.

are you using fraps? if you are, consider changing to dxtory. it’s vastly superior in my opinion and it won’t tax your hard drive as much. with that laptop you should be fine recording without lowest settings.
About the gameplay itself, it was solid, even more so because you are sub 80 and lasted longer than all the rest. Just a couple of things: don’t shoot thieves with dagger storm, the only non-projectile you have is blowtorch; also, when running away don’t forget you can turn the camera back and shoot glue shot while still running away. it helps alot escaping.
it was also fun watching my build (or at least my utility choices) being played by someone else, first time :p

boon duration runes work fine

you are right, I could go up about 100ish points of toughness and lose the equivalent vit. I’m not sure what I can swap around for it while keeping the other stats, I need to take a better look.

+1 to everything you said, couldnt agree more.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Mask-s-new-WvW-build-preview

^^

Thanks ayestes, I edited the topic name to make it clearer it’s a wvw build.

dont expect much, its just a short vid with some fights I had this morning.

So, I changed some stuff around:
Prybar is just too good right now, 5 stacks of confusion for 5 whole seconds is insane and it still crits for 2k+ with direct damage, I honestly don’t know what the devs were thinking here.
I dropped C, slotted toolkit, dropped potent elixirs, traited into 409.
To make up for the lost elixir, I swapped sigil of earth for sigil of strength.

Thanks Amadeus, Siofra, Kardiamond, Amiable, Lavzz and Raquel for their respective ideas, opinions and whatnot.

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.4.6.0.20.0.0.0.0.0.79.87.89.97.102.0.0.0.0.0.0.246.244.252.261.0.0.272.280.281.0.0.0.0.30.10.30.0

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/engineer/?2|a.1h.h5.a.1h.h16|0.0.0.0.0.0|1h.b1h.1h.b1h.1b.71h.1h.71h.1o.71g.1h.71g|2w.0.2u.d13.2w.d14.1h.62.1o.63.2w.d12|0.u64c.a6.u28b.0|2i.7|e

I’ll make a full movie soon..!

Amadeus.5687:

Also as I said, looking forward to your test results with using that Toolkit! I’m sure it’s gonna be brutal!

well, this afternoon I roamed a while with this and it worked very well. At one point I had a fight against 4 opponents, 3 of them at the same time, one joined in halfway through it. I had them all downed and just as I was about to stomp the last one a thief -the first to die in this fight- came back from spawn and got me when I was at low hp. They then proceeded to /bow me.
I was gonna upload it as a sneak peak, but I started recording late and I’m still fumbling my keys a bit, need muscle memory to kick in :p

Ostricheggs.3742:

Good luck throwing grenades or having any situational awareness while elixir S’d.

ditto.

12233445098630915char

nice fights man, kitten those confusion stacks! seemed like half the time I had to turn around to avoid attacking you.
and people say engies are weak, I never fought any class that gave me so much trouble in 1v1.

after watching that prybar in action I decided to use it too, still testing it but Im probably gonna keep it. it’s just too good to pass right now for those using a condition damage spec.

I’m trying something else now, prybar is just too good atm. I dropped C and potent elixirs for toolkit and 409. Gonna test it a bit and see how it goes.

it works fine for me but it varies from thief to thief and even engie to engie. bursty d/d thieves are generaly very easy to beat if you have your cooldowns ready. condition p/d thieves are tougher, especially if they run condition removal + regen on stealth, those fights last long, very long.

it didn’t remove that either :p

ah! well done
nice vid, fun to see 10 stacks of confusion. we need an asura to one up you for the lols by adding pain inverter to the mix.

if immobilizes are your problem try traiting cloaking device. it’s a life saver.

I mainly play solo or in small groups, but I do get into larger fights at times, check my build, maybe you get some ideas for yours: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/New-build-new-wvw-movie

no, still running the same and with great results. I thought about sigil of strength as amiable suggested but I ended up deciding it wasn’t worth it.

I’m slacking on recording, I’m also having some fun with my thief whenever I’m grouped but I’ll have some new engie vid with better stuff than this one before the next patch cycle, just because there’s a Clash song I can’t get out of my head :p

nice vid
I have lost fights because of it, it’s not just an annoying visual bug, it’s very hard to land ground targeted skills while moving with the camera like this. It also makes you lose all battle sense in more confusing fights.
Fix please! :<

october 1st: Fixed a camera bug which occasionally caused the camera to get too close to the player’s backside.

I think this was when the bug was first introduced. can anyone confirm?

this was annoying me for a bit till I got used to it :p

why not both? ^^

hidden flask,together with B, is a great way of making those 4 boons pretty much permanent or at the very least have double the uptime. it’s probably the best minor trait in the game. ofc, it all depends on how much you invested into alchemy.
coated bullets is very helpful in some situations and useless in others, I’d probably drop that one if I had to make a choice, I struggled with that decision alot of times :p

I roam alot solo or in a small group (3 max) and the removal of the swords is a problem for me. There’s no way to know if those attacking a supply camp are less than 5 and therefore killable or a group of 20 and therefore best be avoided.
I do not understand this change at all, who actually benefits from it? large groups that don’t want to pvp?

Kardiamond.6952:

@Maskaganda

Like I said in the other post, you are using a build that is unaffected by those change.

Don’t spit in the air, it might come back in your face.

sorry, I was referring to the op which stated that all patches were engineer nerfs. You know as well as I do that that is simply not true.

Kardiamond.6952:

@Maskaganda

Since you are usually using a HGH build, that’s right.

But feel the pain fur us a bit, do you want everyone to use the same build as you?

I feel your pain and in no way do I want everyone to play with my build :p
Just saying how it feels to me!

people just focus alot on that one nerf each patch and forget the buffs.
it’s really nowhere as bad as most would have you believe, in my view.

as I don’t use KR this was definetly a buff for me, as were all patches before.
it made elixir gun -which I already used in pve- much more appealing for wvw and that confusion on prybar is sexy as hell.

lordbachus.6091:

I dont understand you guys, you all make the obvious buff feel like a nerf because of a single trait that was changed, sadly thats not only the case with engineers, but all over the classforums.

it’s been like that since patch #1.

I’ve also noticed a distinct difference in p#1 sound when it hits a target. is it just me? it was annoying me for a while :p

I’ll test it in a bit

edit: it worked well for me everytime so far.

expected.
honestly, it was just too powerful.

I have fought countless thieves in wvw on m y engie. I win the vast majority of 1v1s, I’ve lost a few but most of the time I came back and won them. There was only one thief that I couldn’t beat, even after 4 attempts. He used p/d cd with runes for bleed duration and geomancy sigil, also cleanse and regen on stealth. The fights took alot of time, up to 5 mins each. I would probably do better with my new build.
Still, I have to say, if they really want to, you wont kill them, even if they don’t kill you. Any decent thief can just chain stealth and regen, never being out of stealth for more than a couple of seconds.

this works for me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGVTQ5YYSqs