Guild Wars 2

ArrDee.2573:

Phineas Poe.3018:

ellesee.8297:

synaptic overload won’t work with bomb kit because the bomb kit has no knockbacks

Don’t forget about Big Ol’ Bomb.

big ole bomb is a blowout, not a knockback.

Blowout skills are just push (knockback) skills that also knockdown. I don’t see why it wouldn’t proc the trait. They even used Overcharged Shot as an example, which is a launch skill, not a push skill.

I think the collective mood of this thread is a bit too assumptive and knee-jerk. Why don’t we just wait for the patch to hit and evaluate how these things work? Rather than complaining that we’re not getting enough, let’s see how everything comes together when the patch hits. Getting flustered over theorycraft adds nothing of substance.

ellesee.8297:

synaptic overload won’t work with bomb kit because the bomb kit has no knockbacks

Don’t forget about Big Ol’ Bomb.

I think you’re nuts. 6/6 Runes of Altruism with Med Kit + Rifle Turret (with Experimental Turrets) = permanent group fury.

You’re also looking at things as they are, today, March 22. There’s going to be a significant paradigm shift once the feature release hits. It’s not that 30/30/0/0/10 will stop being the meta for PvE. That’s definitely not changing, and I don’t expect much if any revisions at all given what we currently know about upcoming changes.

But we’re now going to be able to swap trait lines out of combat on command, so these traits that seem situational will actually be beneficial to rounding out the engineer. For example:

Rhomulos.2089:

Both turret GMs
Reflects for a full investment into the turret line? No thanks for PvP from what I can assume. I can’t judge it right now, but if it’s reflects on tiny damage/effect increases to our current turrets then that’ll be very lackluster.

Having a ton of projectile reflects is a massive contribution in several select dungeons and fractals. Reflects are the number one reason mesmers are a part of the meta, and now we’ve been buffed to the point where we are capable of maintaining over 30 seconds of reflects. In most mob engagements, that will cover the entirety of the fight.

It may not be useful in every dungeon path in the game, but you can very easily now swap out 30 points of Explosives with 30 points of Inventions or Alchemy as necessary. They’re redefining how the entire game is played, and the engineer is perhaps the number one class in the game at taking full advantage of this new system.

I can’t effing wait.

The bomb kit and is more than viable in WvW, whether solo roaming or at the front of a zerg. I comfortably plant myself on commanders in WvW with a 0/0/30/30/10 spec on my engineer.

When solo roaming, I suggest making a point to running with a weapon with a torment sigil. That on top of your burning and confusion will give you considerable condition damage.

Celestial is a good armor choice. It’s what I run pretty much everywhere in WvW, as it’s my ascended armor set. Durable enough to outlast most other enemies on the front line, but powerful enough to kill players in 1v1/2v2 situations.

You should run Rabid/Rampager over Dire for your jewelry, as you want the precision for on-crit effects like Incendiary Powder. Burning damage is actually one of the biggest contributors of our condition damage across the board in PvP/WvW, and I think a lot of players don’t value it enough. Full Dire may be a good survivability increase, but your damage output will go down the tubes.

I personally like running 20/0/10/30/10 when roaming, paired with a couple Giver’s weapons for additional duration, usually pistol and shield. I prefer rolling with my rifle for Jump Shot mobility when zerging (if I overextend), but if roaming the pistol/shield is ideal. Explosive Shot’s bleeding is marginal but it’s a nice cover condition if you’re facing someone with a lot of cleanses. Static Shot is also a nice blind, but Poison Dart Volley’s poison is one of the better conditions to use against guardians, warriors, and necromancers. Any class that relies on passive healing will crumble under poison.

This build gets me all the important bomb traits and allows me to still stack survivability with points in Alchemy and Inventions. I personally pair it with the tool kit, but where you go with it ultimately is up to you. Confusion, burning, and torment together really give most classes a hard time.

I hope this helps.

Llanowar.1603:

Phineas Poe.3018:

If you’re not a fan of full Berserker, Celestial is a good alternative as I outlined in the OP. My ascended armor set is Celestial.

I will probably go with that for my ascended gear when I get around to crafting it.

It’s the only sensible choice. Berserker is great for dungeons, but it doesn’t have much place in WvW or at Tequatl. The extra defensive stats are also helpful in high level fractals. Sometimes that extra bit of healing power makes the difference between an ally going down or not from my healing turret.

If you’re going to invest that much gold into something, it should be for gear that’s viable 100% of the time, and isn’t conditionally useful by how much DPS the group is doing on the whole.

It doesn’t help that ArenaNet is ninja-nerfing (or buffing?) dungeon paths as well. The most recent patch buffed the Troll in HOTW p1. Now he’s pretty much the same as the AC Troll, and in one hit downs Berserker builds. I actually had to swap into my Celestial gear for that one.

I primarily bumped this thread to give notice that I’ll be updating this post over the next couple weeks according to the feature patch. Once we get a list of all full trait changes, I’ll get it out there so we can discuss before the patch hits.

Thanks all for reading and helping contribute to making this build what it is.

Staffordshire.1752:

People seem to not notice the fact that im talking about an EDGE, meaning the engi class is indeed very viable, fun and useful, but could use that tiny bit of something that would make it not such a niche pick. Instead they try to alienate me by saying im a noob because im not a huge fanboy that thinks his class is perfect? Suggestions keep games healthy.

Well, first of all: I have every class at level 80. They’re all in full exotics mixed in with ascended gear where it is reasonable. I’ve taken them all into dungeons, into PvP, into World vs. World. And regardless of how much time I spend with the other seven classes in this game, I always, eventually, gravitate back to the engineer. So please do keep in mind who you’re talking to when you throw around words like “fanboy” or “thinking [the engineer] is perfect.”

The engineer is my favorite class, and while the first and only legendary I acquired is equipped on my engineer, I do not think the engineer is perfect or above criticism. I just don’t see the point in complaining about the lack of “edge” when playing an engineer is all about versatility. And on top of all that versatility we’re the best class in the game at vulnerability stacking and condition removal: two very important things in top-tier PvE like Fractals. And if you really did want to make that argument, that engineer, despite its versatility, does have to have its niche: you can find that in crowd control.

I can’t tell you how many times I bring other classes to Tequatl, stroll up to Eastern Battery defense, and regret not being on my engineer. I can tie up entire crowds of vets/elites with Slick Shoes, and can single-handedly keep all the Abominations off the battery between Overcharged Shot, Big Ol’ Bomb, and Personal Battering Ram. It’s not entirely as useful in PvE as it is in WvW/PvP, but you can see that ArenaNet has made a deliberate effort over time to bring crowd control back into the game through Teq/Wurm, TA Aetherpath, and the Marionette.

Staffordshire.1752:

+ while engi can stack might and stealth he can’t do it as consistently as an ele and a thief. While he can provide some small projectile def, a pull, .. he doesnt bring very useful group utility traits like spotter,…

I dislike assuming that just because there’s an elementalist in the group that might stacking is covered, or because there’s a thief in the group that stealth is covered. Not every thief runs 15 points in Shadow Arts, and not every elementalist is running the S/D build especially with how popular Lava Font is.

Having an engineer in the group actually alleviates a lot of pressure on elementalists and thieves, and allows them to take other weapons or utilities rather than running what they’re expected to run when they’re the sole provider of their boon or buff.

Engineers also succeed in two areas you haven’t mentioned: condition removal and vulnerability stacking, both of which are very important in high level fractals. Mai Trin is absolutely trivialized by Fumigate, and vulnerability stacking is the single-most important damage modifier for groups. An engineer maintaining 25 vulnerability on top of Frost Spirit and Banner of Discipline results in the fastest clear times.

The only reason engineers aren’t meta for dungeons is ignorance compounded by lack of trust. The average player (1) doesn’t understand what engineers bring to the table and (2) don’t trust the average engineer to actually do it.

Celestial armor. It’s more than enough DPS to speed clear most dungeon paths in under 10 minutes, and it’s enough survivability to front-line a WvW blob with the bomb kit or melee Tequatl.

Some people may argue that Berserker is best in PvE, but we have access to so much might, vulnerability, and damage traits (Rifle Mod, Target The Maimed, Mod Ammo) we can kind of get away with it. The damage gain with Berserker is there, but in my opinion doesn’t really warrant building a second full set of armor to get it.

I feel like full Celestial is overkill, but at least for armor purposes, I can’t think of a better option that has so much application across the game.

Adamantium.3682:

Phineas Poe.3018:

Renn.8241:

My thoughts exactly. I myself prefer sticking to my style of gameplay, which avoid switching between multiple skills bars like Ele and Engi.
Not that I can’t get the grasp of it and can be effective.
Rather I am more effective with options, and it pushes me away from Engineer despite how much I want to get involved with the class.

Unfortunately this is kind of just how things are for every class.

As a guardian, if you don’t run consecrations you’re just not really that helpful in dungeons. As a ranger, if you don’t run spirits, you’re not providing the best of what the class offers. And if you’re a warrior, you are certainly expected to take a banner or two. At least War Banner.

Each class is designed around a particular subset of utility skills that, when used properly, set them apart from other classes both in role differentiation and in overall playstyle.

So for warriors, for guardians, for rangers: it’s their banners, their consecrations, their spirits. For us: it’s our kits. Running without a kit or two as an engineer would be similar to running a mesmer without glamour skills: Feedback and Null Field are just what you take mesmers for.

I’m not necessarily defending ArenaNet’s design philosophy behind the engineer or our reliance of kits to be balanced, but this is what every class deals with. A triple meditation guardian build just has no place in FOTM 50 despite how fun it is.

No it’s not. You’ve quoted specific areas of the game where certain professions need certain utilities to stay competitive. That’s sort of what the point of utilities is after all. Aside from the examples themselves not being true (a Guard even in fotm 50 does not need to use a consecration) you’ve cherry picked certain areas where this is the case. With the Warrior that’s not even a good comparison at all. Banners make groups better and they’re great for buffing. Warriors are not even close to being balanced around the use of banners…

With the Engineer it’s everywhere in the game where they need to have a kit. It’s not the same as what you’ve described. Guardians are not balanced with at least 1 consecration slotted. Rangers are not balanced with a spirit as a given. Engineers are balanced with kits assumed to be in play.

There are expectations for each class. You are expected to use consecrations as a guardian. You are expected to use banners as a warrior.

You are expected to use kits as an engineer. If I were to pug a FOTM 50, I certainly would expect a warrior to bring War Banner over Signet of Rage. I expect a warrior to use the axe/whaever and a greatsword. I do not want to see them wielding a mainhand mace or a hammer. I similarly expect an engineer to be wielding a kit of some kind, not auto-attack with his pistol and chugging elixirs.

There are not only utility skill expectations for each class, but weapon expectations for each class. If a mesmer joined your party running scepter/torch, he would be looked down upon. If someone deliberately chooses not to wield kits, they’re essentially gimping themselves just as a warrior would wielding a mace.

While I understand the OP’s desire for more weapon choice, one that I too stand behind and look forward to seeing, the engineer as a class will always be mechanically balanced around the assumption of wielding kits. It’s why we only have one weapon set.

Renn.8241:

My thoughts exactly. I myself prefer sticking to my style of gameplay, which avoid switching between multiple skills bars like Ele and Engi.
Not that I can’t get the grasp of it and can be effective.
Rather I am more effective with options, and it pushes me away from Engineer despite how much I want to get involved with the class.

Unfortunately this is kind of just how things are for every class.

As a guardian, if you don’t run consecrations you’re just not really that helpful in dungeons. As a ranger, if you don’t run spirits, you’re not providing the best of what the class offers. And if you’re a warrior, you are certainly expected to take a banner or two. At least War Banner.

Each class is designed around a particular subset of utility skills that, when used properly, set them apart from other classes both in role differentiation and in overall playstyle.

So for warriors, for guardians, for rangers: it’s their banners, their consecrations, their spirits. For us: it’s our kits. Running without a kit or two as an engineer would be similar to running a mesmer without glamour skills: Feedback and Null Field are just what you take mesmers for.

I’m not necessarily defending ArenaNet’s design philosophy behind the engineer or our reliance of kits to be balanced, but this is what every class deals with. A triple meditation guardian build just has no place in FOTM 50 despite how fun it is.

Ljiona.9142:

I was actually looking for a change of pace dropping tiers. However, they are pretty much the same. Every server blobs around the map in karma trains. I find less 1 on 1 battles in the lower tiers than I did in tier 1.

I too was very much looking forward dropping to lower tiers so that I could solo roam more efficiently. I was never a big zerg player (nor were most players of my guild in general—we’re more sPvP than WvW), and generally preferred, if partying up, participating in small-scale engagements with other players running with 1-2 other players from my guild.

If there is a silver lining to all of this, it appears to me that Dragonbrand is pretty much the last high-coverage server on the list. SBI is only 9K ahead of us on the scoreboard.

That screenshot is from CoE.

You’re not really going to see much in the way of 9K bomb attacks in Fractals, especially in higher tiers when they’re level 82 or more. Next time I do a run I can screenshot damage against some bosses for you.

If you’re not a fan of full Berserker, Celestial is a good alternative as I outlined in the OP. My ascended armor set is Celestial.

I have both a bomb-centric build and an FT-centric build in my signature. I hope these help you.

Ledddawe.8964:

Firearms VIII—Juggernaut: This trait now halves retaliation damage taken while using flame jet in addition to its current effects

So FT might be usable in WvW now.

PvE: The FT was already mediocre compared to bombs/grenades, but with the Modified Ammo buff it was left in the dust. I don’t use it anymore except for tagging at world events like Melandru and Gates of Arah. Very sad.

PvP: Air Blast is a good knockback for decap builds, but it’s not a viable damage option at all.

WvW: Death by retaliation.

I find Edge of the Mists to be a very favorable space for engineers when roaming. All of the ledges and cliffs really makes our pull/push skills incredible useful.

For regular WvW roaming, meh. We’re OK.

Rezzet.3614:

burn=2000-2500 damage per second

You would have to have over 6.5K Condition Damage in your stats to reach this amount of burning per second. Simply not possible.

Adamantium.3682:

Phineas Poe.3018:

To provide a bit more context, just keep in mind if you drop a smoke bomb and then a fire bomb, you’re not necessarily going to always get a blast finisher that stacks might.

You’re right, this should provide stealth

I don’t believe you’re correct with regards to pulsing fields. The effects pulse, but I don’t think that refreshes the field.

I can drop Napalm (which does not pulse) and then a Smoke Bomb on top of it (which does). No matter how many blast finishers I use (I just tested 5) I will never get stealth. Similarly I can drop Super Elixir followed by Fire Bomb. When I use all my blast finishers they all give retaliation, though if the fire field pulsed it should have over written the light field at some point.

Weird. I remember using double fields like Super Elixir + Fire Bomb in the past and getting stuck with Area Retaliation, but maybe that was a bug that has been fixed.

Good to know.

Just to add a layer of understanding here: it’s not just about what is “oldest.” Some combo fields like guardian symbols and engineer bombs “pulse” every second. This results in them actually being refreshed in the order of appearance.

To provide a bit more context, just keep in mind if you drop a smoke bomb and then a fire bomb, you’re not necessarily going to always get a blast finisher that stacks might.

Necromancers.

Conditions will be your primary cause of death. We have a lot of great damage mitigation skills through Gear Shield, Elixir S, Protection Injection, Stabilized Armor, etc. etc., but our condition removal by comparison is fairly lackluster.

You could try to counter this by running Elixir C as your third utility, but necromancers have a utility skill called Corrupt Boons that is sometimes used that basically takes all those conditions you turned into boons and … revert them back to conditions. This is why most engineers make a point to stay away from this skill, and just try to avoid wells in the first place.

I suggest, if you can Elixir S on your bar, to just use that—or any damage mitigation skill really—to proc all their wells safely. Run through them all as the glorious mini-you that you are and you’ve disrupted their condition burst pretty effectively. Realistically speaking though, if you see two necros hanging out on a point, you will just want to walk away slowly.

Or quickly. If they saw you.

Linc.6834:

Phineas’ advice is good, but after having grinded out a set celestial exotic armor I felt it was lacking compared to my berserker.

Well, of course. I would never suggest that Celestial should be in any way competitive to Berserker. It’s probably, at best, on level with Knight’s: a nice contribution of damage offset by a nice contribution of defense. If you live in dungeons and FOTM, I think Berserker would be best, but if you do any reasonable amount of WvW or Tequatl, I think it would be pretty frustrating to spend hundreds of gold crafting an armor set you’re not going to always use.

The point is more that ascended armor is so ridiculously expensive, and that you’re probably only going to make one armor set. Therefore, it’s probably best to make something you’ll get use of as much as possible.

Celestial armor is great for roaming. It’s great for zergs. And it’s great for high level FOTM and Tequatl. I specialize my weapons (I have Predator to swap stats on command) and jewelry when I need more focus. And if I’m really in one of those dungeon groups that really is all about finishing stuff as fast as possible, I do carry my Berserker armor set with me at all times.

The amount of flexibility I have with Celestial is just too good. The Ferocity nerf is going to hurt, but I think they have plans to adjust the stat allocation of Celestial so that it remains competitive to other insignias—which just means even more defensive gains with improved power and condition damage.

I’ve been living in EOTM this week, and I’ve been rolling a 10/0/30/30/0 bomb build at the front of whatever zerg or guild group I’m rolling with. I’m always one of the last to die/longest to survive despite Celestial’s inferiority to Soldier, and I still complete FOTM 30s in as many minutes with my 30/30/0/0/10 build with the same runes and armor, farming relics for my alts.

You’re going to see a personal DPS loss going from Berserker armor to Celestial armor, but your quality of life is so significantly better you won’t really care. It feels so good to have one armor set that literally just works everywhere—and gives me 25% movement speed with Traveler runes. It frees up bag space and keeps constructing builds simple—something that we don’t really get to say much of regarding our profession on the whole.

I would specialize trinkets and weapons, largely because they’re easy enough to get and they’re the critical juncture in making your build work. Armor by comparison is not really so important. To give you an idea, an ascended Berserker weapon is a fairly large DPS increase given the additional weapon strength. Trinkets, too, are a pretty large DPS increase just by the margin between them an exotics. The difference in power gain between ascended trinkets and exotic trinkets is 570 versus 461.

The different in power gain between ascended armor and exotic armor is 329 versus 315. So for players that already have exotic Berserker gear, ascended armor is not going to be very much of an increase! The only realm of PvE where ascended armor is really that critical is FOTM, and while I must understand the desire to gear out a character in full Beserker if dedicated to FOTM, I do take my engineer elsewhere.

Celestial armor + Soldier everything else is more than safe in WvW zergs, and Celestial armor + Berserker trinkets and weapons is more than satisfactory damage in PvE. If I’m really all that concerned with speed clearing a dungeon path, an exotic Berserker armor set gets the job done just fine.

kubetz.3058:

The most blast finishers I got on a combo field is 7 – it was on the fire and smoke fields.

The key to a ton of blast finishers is Thumper Turret, but outside of providing 3 blast finishers that turret is not that useful in most scenarios.

To get 7 blast finishers:
1) Switch to Bomb Kit.
2) Thumper Turret.
3) Big Ol’ Bomb
4) Healing Turret
5) Fire Bomb / Smoke Bomb
6) Big Ol’ Bomb Explodes (blast #1)
7) Thump (blast #2)
8) Detonate Thumper Turret (blast #3)
9) Rumble (blast #4)
10) Detonate Healing Turret (blast #5)
11) Magnetic Shield -> Magnetic Inversion (blast #6)
12) Rocket Boots (blast #7)

For 12) you can use whatever skill with blast finisher you want, of course – another turret, mine.

It is a nice warm-up for the fingers to get all the blast finishers in time .

FYI: Outside of combat, you can “prime” the thumper turret by overcharging it. And when you detonate it, you get both blast finishers. There is no timing involved.

If I’m doing a stealth skip like in dredge, I’ll drop both turrets, overcharge the thumper turret, and then place Big Ol’ Bomb + Smoke Bomb. After detonating the turrets, just use the thumper toolbelt.

I also suggest using Toss Elixir S over another blast finisher, as it provides 5 seconds versus a blast finisher’s 3. With that rotation you can give your group 15-17 seconds of stealth, depending how good you are. It’s no Smoke Screen + Cluster spam + Shadow Refuge, but it’s still really good.

It’s what I’ve been running since December. I’ve never had more fun playing my engineer. So much damage and utility. Only reason I ever use the grenade kit in PvE is if it’s something that must be fought at range.

The radius buff and the Modified Ammo buff has done wonders to elevate its competitiveness to other kits. I used to never use it. Now I use it everywhere.

Spike damage is not good in PvE.

Lupanic.6502:

the +15% burning duration is useless because burning does only damage at full sec. With 15% duration you get not an extra tick of burning. Means +15% duration is as good as 0% duration in this case.

Protection is nice, no question.

It’s not useless if the 15% results in an additional second that otherwise wouldn’t.

I run Energy/Corruption sigils with 20 points in Explosives (20/10/0/30/10 with bomb kit + tool kit).

20% condition duration by itself is only 0.8 seconds added to your burning. With the additional 15% from Forge, it’s 1.4 seconds added. You also have to take into consideration that some builds take -% condition duration runes like Melandru.

Never assume that you’re always getting the full effectiveness of your posted durations.

I find Melandru kind of meh. I happen to prefer Rune of the Forge.

It gives +15% burning duration, which is kind of nice, but it also gives you 10 seconds of Protection at 50% HP. This alongside Protection Injection makes you a lot more formidable.

As for feeling less spammy with your keys, I never run with three kits myself, usually because I find that the grenade/bomb kit and tool kit by themselves get the job done against most classes. I prefer saving my third utility slot for something that enhances the effectiveness of the kits I primarily wield. I used to take the elixir gun as my third utility, but I just didn’t use it frequently enough.

To give you an example, running Slick Shoes makes the bomb kit/tool kit combo significantly more lethal. It forces players into using their stun breaker or else they get nailed with 10 stacks of confusion and a ton of burning, which usually results in death. It also provides a stun breaker.

I also think that too many engineers don’t use their pistol enough. It’s really kind of hilarious how quickly some people die just shooting skills 1-3. It’s not that Explosive Powder itself is all that fantastic of a skill, but it’s very effective at keeping bleeding on your target that can operate as a cover condition for your more important conditions like confusion, burning, and poison.

I know the grenade kit is the bee’s knees for a lot of guys, but I have found good players are remarkably good at staying out of your volleys. Against highly mobile classes like thieves, it’s just a headache to land stuff. I feel a lot of players are often better off just using their pistol and slapping some conditions with that, instead.

Well, you don’t have to go the full 30/30 to start. You can cushion the learning curve putting more points into Alchemy. Something like 25/25/0/20/0 would be a bit safer. Once you feel more comfortable with the build, go with 30/30/0/10/0 variant and then go with 10 Tools when you’re confident in your abilities.

Just make a point to read over the traits you’re taking, and understand why they’re important. 25 Firearms and 25 Explosives, despite being “minor” traits, are some of the most important to maximizing your DPS. Once you understand why they’re taken, it’s easier to comprehend what you’re giving up by building in survivability. It’s OK to do when starting out, but you should be realistically be building toward these “better” traits as you get more comfortable with the content.

There are other ways to boost your survivability without compromising your trait setup, like going with an Energy sigil over Force/Night, giving you more dodge rolls. You could also go with a more defensive-minded rune set. You could also slot more stunbreakers, heals, and blocks (i.e., the shield, elixir gun, and tool kit). I just don’t recommend building in too much “tanky” gear. It instills bad habits. Instead, learn to rely on your dodges and blinds. They’re what will keep you alive at high level FOTM and “end game” content, not stacking toughness and vitality.

I suggest rolling with your engineer in open world events for a while. Fight bosses like Golem at melee range, learning to avoid the lightning fields on the ground. This is good practice to make you a better player in a criticism-free environment. Many times the most important thing about staying alive at melee range is not about dodging but just knowing where to stand. Some of this just comes from simply learning the patterns and becoming experienced, but a lot of it is also about understanding the core systems in place in Guild Wars 2 and knowing your limits (i.e., how many attacks you can dodge in 30 seconds).

I also think PvP is a great way to learn how to dodge effectively, but it’s a bit harsher of an environment.

Good luck.

30 Invention is a bit more useful in PvP, where tanking has its place (like defending a capture node).

Unfortunately there’s little reason to run such a build in PvE, as most encounters are more about active defense (boons, dodging, etc.) and less about passive defense (toughness, vitality, healing power). Fractals are a pretty good example of this.

At FOTM 10-20, you can still run passive defense builds and do OK. But by FOTM 50, you are expected to know how to dodge, use projectile walls, and boons, as toughness and vitality become almost meaningless.

If you’d like to see some PvE-centric bomb builds, just to get an idea of what we generally aim for at 80, you can see a link in my signature.

Wolfar.6508:

Phineas Poe.3018:

It’s nice to see everything all in the same place, but you might want to make a point to update some of these builds. 30/5/0/10/25 hasn’t been the proper grenade build in PvE since after Modified Ammo was buffed.

30/30/X/X/X is also vastly superior to 25/20/0/0/25, even if you’re just wanting to sit in the bomb kit.

Oh, that is silly, I actually have the updated version right here in my notepad, instead I copied the old one. I update it now, thanks for notifying me!

All good. Just making sure.

It’s nice to see everything all in the same place, but you might want to make a point to update some of these builds. 30/5/0/10/25 hasn’t been the proper grenade build in PvE since after Modified Ammo was buffed.

30/30/X/X/X is also vastly superior to 25/20/0/0/25, even if you’re just wanting to sit in the bomb kit.

Big Jay.1479:

There is also a collection of Engi builds here (posted by the creator on another thread just today iirc) : http://theengineerlegion.boards.net/board/15/wolfineers-engineer-guide

Please don’t use those builds.

25/20/0/0/25 and 30/5/0/10/25 are both pre-Mod Ammo builds. I don’t know why he’s advertising outdated builds, but they’re really not optimal trait setups since December 10th.

Fall.8475:

Also I think using bombs requires close range. In zerk gear will require lots of dodging.

What are you using instead?

kyubi.3620:

for some funny reason i never actualy tought of the enginer that way.

Because up until a couple months ago, 30 Firearms wasn’t a good trait setup unless you ran the flamethrower. It’s also not very good to run 30 Tools over 30 Explosives because you’re missing out on some very key traits. It’s not that Tools is bad, but you should always place greater importance over +damage traits over +critical damage traits.

They’re a larger boost in damage, especially since vulnerability affects the whole party.

Fall.8475:

My Highly Classified Build’s stats seem better.

Pass. I’ll take 200 Power, +10% bomb damage, and vulnerability stacking over 20% critical damage and 10% extra damage with full endurance. Especially since critical damage is about to get nerfed. Vulnerability is a party-wide damage gain, and 10/30/0/0/30 does an absolutely terrible job of maintaining it. It’s easily the number one thing we contribute best in groups at the moment, and you’re not building around it.

Phoenixlin.8624:

Geez as if Wurm and Teqila spawn one time in a day. Do one boss and then go for the other.

Right. But why wait two hours when you can wait one?

Especially for servers that don’t have Tequatl killed yet on a regular basis, it would help them out having them on alternating timers so that the same group of players can go back and forth attempting each boss. And for those of us that have Tequatl on farm status, we can fit in a kill before/after our Wurm attempts and then get on with the rest of our life: doing FOTM, dungeons, WvW, etc.

TPMN.1483:

We’re going to get more world bosses which are hard and timers will always clash – it’s a case of sorting out which event you want to do and when.

But they don’t have to clash. If you fight them at alternating hours you can kill Tequatl first, giving you 40-45 minutes to prep for Wurm. I’d much prefer that to what we have right now.

Is there a reason why both Wurm and Tequatl spawn at the same time?

When Marionette Living Story segment is over, is it possible that you guys can shift Wurm so that they spawn on alternating hours rather than at the same time?

Thanks!

Wondrouswall.7169:

Think it’s generally accepted to have -some- pieces of Knight’s gear when learning encounters and replacing them with Berserker pieces when familiar/comfortable.

There’s no point in wasting gold crafting armor you’re only going to be using temporarily.

If you need the additional survivability, just swap around some skills and traits. It’s much cheaper.

motherbox.5493:

Ok sounds good, but I am feeling a little squishy during world events and am going down a lot – any advice?

Don’t take this as an insult, but this is just an issue of inexperience. You just have to get used to being in melee and knowing what attacks to dodge. It’s also just a matter of learning when you have to fight at range (i.e., Fire Shaman phase 2).

To ease the learning curve, it may help you to give yourself some room for error. Run 10 points into Alchemy instead of Tools, giving yourself vigor. Take the tool kit or the shield for their blocks, and add a stunbreaker or two into your build. Use a Sigil of Energy on your off-hand instead of Bloodlust or Force.

Just don’t wear Soldier’s or Knight’s gear. Accept that you’re squishy in Berserker gear and learn to get used to it. If you ever need additional survivability, it should come from your traits or swapping out skills. And as you get more comfortable in Berserker at melee, you’ll learn to rely on them less.

Crumps.4012:

Don’t forget that Celestial is about to hit with the nerf stick on critical damage though…

Then it may be useless. Having said that whatever you build ANET will most likely kitten it at some near future point and you’ll need to respec… they can’t sell gems if everyone has what they need can they. My 2c on it

Armor is not really a huge contributor of critical damage in the first place. Your rings alone near-match what your entire armor set provides (+17% versus +16%).

Bombsaway.7198:

The fundamental flaw with the difficulty in getting ascended armor (or weapons for that matter) is that too often it is much better to have several sets of exotic and swap for the specific situation than to have ONE set of ascended.

Sure, but how much is that specificity really getting you? Let’s compare values to one another.

Celestial (ascended) armor gives 147 to all stats. Three attribute armor (ascended) gives 329/235/235 split. Going Celestial over Berserker, for example, nets you a loss of 182 power and 88 precision (3.5% critical hit chance).

Has anyone failed to complete a fractal because they were running with 20 stacks of might versus 25?

Not really.

Celestial armor is more than satisfactory for anything in PvE. If you’re concerned with maximizing your clear times it’s not ideal, but I think it’s important to be realistic of just how much time is lost when you’re swapping from Berserker to Celestial.

I would argue from the very beginning that your ascended armor should be what you expect to wear in FOTM. That’s what it’s primarily designed for.

Xae.7204:

The writing is on the wall, we need to accept it. ArenaNet developers are far more interested in constantly tweaking their personal Mary Sue classes (Guardian, Warrior, Thief) than in fixing the broken classes that they do not play (Ranger, Engineer, Elementalist).

This rhetoric is so comically outdated. Spirit rangers sweep through PvP. You see one on every 5v5 tourney team. And elementalists dish out the best DPS in the game.

Just armor. In WvW when roaming I run Giver’s weapons with condi trinkets (Rabid or Rampager, depending on my mood). When in zergs, I run with Soldier stats.

I very rarely record my play time in WvW so unfortunately you’re going to have to go by my word on this, but I find it effective enough. Would it be better to run full Rabid? Perhaps. But I think it is way too expensive to make multiple sets of ascended armor for one character.

In PvE I run Berserker trinkets and weapons in dungeons/fractals. At Tequatl and Wurm I wear my Soldier trinkets.

It’s overpowered in the sense that you get significantly more stats added into your build than any of the triple-attribute insignias. It’s not the best at maximizing your DPS, but if you make use of each stat (as we do) then it’s just about as ideal an armor set as you’d want for your engineer.

And for the amount of gold invested making an armor set, you better be sure you’re going to be using it a lot.

Celestial insignia + Traveler runes is best, in my opinion.

It’s honestly the only armor set available as an engineer that is actually useful in both PvE and WvW, which I think should be your main objective anyway. It’s just way too expensive making an armor set you’d only use for one phase of the game.

And while Berserker is great for dungeons, it’s not the best for Wurm or Tequatl. Celestial is a much more ideal middle ground, and the additional healing power is useful if you regularly run Temple of Balthazar (or anything that involves keeping NPCs alive). And while Berserker is great in FOTM, running Celestial is more than satisfactory. I still complete FOTM 30 in as many minutes in Celestial armor when I run with my guild. So it’s not like you need to go full glass cannon to be efficient there. If anything, when rolling through 40+ you want at least a little survivability to cushion the blows.

Now it’s true that 140 Toughness or whatever Celestial gives is barely a 5% damage reduction, but that’s also compounded with additional healing power and vitality. On paper it doesn’t seem like a lot, but in actual application I find myself often in a situation where I was able to heal myself back up to a reasonable state where I otherwise would have been downed.

The areas where Berserker truly shines is in quick path dungeons like TA, CoF, CoE, HotW, and SE. Stuff that is ran in quick succession where speed is the sole concern. And in such places exotic armor gets the job done just fine. For the rest of PvE (and all of WvW as far as I’m concerned) Celestial is fantastic.

I went with ascended Celestial myself. Even with the critical damage nerf, I think it’s a completely overpowered armor set if you can make use of both power and condition damage (as well as the healing power) for WvW roaming.

And I do carry a Berserker exotic armor set around for when we’re concerned with speed clearing stuff. But for most everything else, Celestial is quite good if not preferential (i.e., Tequatl/Wurm and high-level FOTM).

I don’t regret my decision making Celestial armor in the slightest, even with the upcoming nerf. For ascended jewelry and weapons, I’d stick with Berseker though.

Lump me into the crowd that is upset by this nerf, but I think you guys need to chillax.

What makes Celestial so good is that it offers more overall stats than three-attribute armor (i.e., exotic = 763 total versus 980 total).

So if you’re running a build that makes use of both condition damage and power, the additional critical damage made it a natural choice. Even with the ferocity nerf, if I had to do it all over again, I would still make an ascended Celestial armor set for my engineer over a Berserker’s or Rampager’s set.

So while I am upset that the armor set is being nerfed, I still am going to roll with it on my engineer in fractals and in World vs. World. It’s what I made it for, anyway. Exotic quality Berserker armor gets the job done for the rest of PvE.

Keep in mind that condition duration maxes out at 100%. You can easily reach that without Napalm Specialist.

If you want my honest opinion, I think 30 points into Firearms is really inefficient for WvW. I tried Modified Ammo with roaming when it was first buffed, but I found myself rolling back to 20/10/X/X/X (bomb kit, tool kit, rocket boots) since then.