14 replies to this topic

[Og Bamser]

Hi all. I'm currently running a P/P condition damage engineer with grenades and EG support. Doing 30/20/0/10/10 for traits. My build is here.

I'm looking to run a mix of rabid and carrion armor/trinkets with rampager jewels. Rabid on helm, coat, pants, pistols, rings and backpiece; carrion for all else. Then 6 superior runes of the undead for added toughness and condition damage.

I'm still working on getting exotic rings and pistols, but I'm already noticing that I'm losing a lot of health to conditions. When I was running in AC, the small spiders downed me with their poison.

If I'm crunching numbers right, this setup should put me at around 1.2k vitality (18k health) and 1.3k toughness.

Should I be putting in more vitality or am I just not playing this setup right? My main is an ele, so I am used to using cantrips and auras to survive. It's been an adjustment trying to figure out a play style for my engineer.

I'd greatly appreciate your guys' help. Thanks!

[MrForz]

I run something similar (Whenever I feel like using Grenades) except that I've got slightly more Carrion pieces, both will give good results anyways. Since you've got more Rabid pieces than I do you should be pretty cool enough on the crit chance to remove 10 points from Firearms and add them to Alchemy.

Here's the variation: http://gw2skills.net...lIF6nl95xblWQIA

Speedy Kits + Stimulant will get you to keep the perma Swiftness. Your heal skill will heal for less but also with a much shorter cooldown which is worth as much as the Elixir H + the cooldowns trait and in critical cases you get to heal for another 3k if dropping your med packs. Switching between kits will also grant you some internal regeneration and you get Protection whenever you're disabled in any way. (You can change this for the Vigor trait). All of this + the Elixir Gun's healing skills should make up for the needed survivability.

Besides, the conditions from AC you speak aren't quite weak, attempting to walk in there like if it was nothing is like attempting to 1v1 the Risen Priest of Balthazar so you shouldn't be worrying about that. So far you're on the good track.

[Og Bamser]

Thanks! This setup looks to have much more survivability. I had utility/defensive traits before, but traded it out for more precision/condition damage traits. Your setup is probably more durable.

What would an average crit rate be for engineers in order to be effective with traits like Sharpshooter and Incendiary Powder? On other prof forums, I've been reading upwards of 45-50% in order to get good enough proc'ing, but doing that seems like you would be hurting in other areas.

One last question: do engineers switch out slot skills from battle to battle using the same traits, to adapt to situations? I play a d/d auramancer as an ele, but I switch to d/f and staff using the same points distribution based on the situation.

[FoxBat]

Invigorating speed in alchemy will do more to help squishiness than pretty much anything, if you have one of the swiftness spam traits. Doubling your invulnerability windows is nothing to sneeze at.

[Killyox]

full dmg is not the way to go. Especially with no rushing aymore,

[Thaddeuz]

Killyox, on 29 January 2013 - 12:01 PM, said:

full dmg is not the way to go. Especially with no rushing aymore,

Depend, i play full Rampager's with my Engineer Grenade and rarely die. Depend on the player. I can go full dmg with my Engineer, Mesmer and Ranger, but i'm not able to do it with all my other profession.

[MrForz]

That's what I was about to point out. Grenades, 1500 range, there's built-in safety in this, unreliable but present.

Concerning the Slot Skills... well, we don't have much options, we have Rifle, Pistol/Shield and Pistol/Pistol, the latter ones could be hotswapped but you don't tend to rely on these off-hand skills religiously enough to involve hotswapping.

[Little Bird]

I also feel pretty squishy when it comes to taking condition damage. Your best bet it to learn when to immobilize/cripple your target, retreat, how to stay back and to be able to dodge at appropriate times. I have enough points in Alchemy that I can remove a condition with a thrown elixir and I have a lot of vitality. It doesn't help me if I don't also move around a lot.

[Intoxicated]

I ran a similar build, but with rifle and power gear, in fractals last night and after patch noticed I was doing a lot more damage. But I run kit refinement 30/20/0/0/20. The cleanse on the extra super elixer is very handy. Not to mention the toolbelt reset at low life is clutch. I found myself jumping into a mob, laying down a double grenade barrage and acid leap out 100 nades style

[Og Bamser]

Little Bird, on 29 January 2013 - 08:38 PM, said:

Your best bet it to learn when to immobilize/cripple your target, retreat, how to stay back and to be able to dodge at appropriate times.

I think those are the things I'm still figuring out on engi. Keeping range and when to retreat are the main things I'd like to work on. As a d/d ele, I'm pretty used to going in, dealing my combos and cantripping out when I take too much damage. With my setup on engi, I try to keep range but it's tough when a champ targets me; I don't have much in the way of escapes, so I'm not sure if I should stop damaging and just run away or something else.

Intoxicated, on 29 January 2013 - 08:53 PM, said:

I ran a similar build, but with rifle and power gear, in fractals last night and after patch noticed I was doing a lot more damage. But I run kit refinement 30/20/0/0/20. The cleanse on the extra super elixer is very handy. Not to mention the toolbelt reset at low life is clutch. I found myself jumping into a mob, laying down a double grenade barrage and acid leap out 100 nades style

I ran kit refinement before. The extra super elixir is handy. I just didn't find it reliable when it came to me taking massive/persistent condition damage. The heal over time didn't match up to the conditions I was taking in and I found myself getting the extra elixir when I didn't need it, due to me switching to EG for some other reason. Maybe I was doing it wrong. :/

[Intoxicated]

Naw its ok to blow it, you have the other one. But you also have 2 other condition removals, toss R and medkit 4. It definitly takes some practice engi can be akward with kitswapping and such. You could try elixer S instead of R its a bit like mist form I suppose.

[coglin]

The OP build in the original post has no survival traits at all. I use prec/cond dmg/toughness gear straight across, and I feel very solid.

I also try to use either "cloaking device" or "self-regulating defense" in my builds. Both when I can. They add a great deal of survivability to any situation, in my opinion.

[TGIFrisbie]

I am not engi pro, or pro at any profession but I have a decent grasp of some basic concerns.  First 18k health should be enough if not more than enough.  The main thing about dungeons and health is having enough time to react to the situations you will face.  Under 12k is to close to getting 1 shot or burning down before you can react.  Thus I had to get my thief out of this zerker health range.  For my guardian 15k health was pushing the low end, had to get it up a tad.  For my warrior currently I feel 18k is scrapping bottom.

Once you figure out where your health can be for the content you prefer to do (certain dungeons, fractal levels, etc.) then you can concentrate more on if you want toughness or your primary damage stats.

[GuanglaiKangyi]

Killyox, on 29 January 2013 - 12:01 PM, said:

full dmg is not the way to go. Especially with no rushing aymore,

You have a character capable of inflicting full damage at 1500 range, medium armor, high health pool, tons of defensive options, and a max damage gearset that boosts your toughness super high, and you still want more?

You can facetank most bosses even with a full zerker D/D thief.  I don't see what more you need.

[Killyox]

GuanglaiKangyi, on 31 January 2013 - 05:49 AM, said:

You have a character capable of inflicting full damage at 1500 range, medium armor, high health pool, tons of defensive options, and a max damage gearset that boosts your toughness super high, and you still want more?

You can facetank most bosses even with a full zerker D/D thief.  I don't see what more you need.

Do you have problems with reading by chance? Because you imply things that had no place. Also please, do play with grenades at 1500 with moving targets. How often and where will you have 1500 range? Engie is medium range class and by what i said i meant that full dmg build has no real adventages over balanced one.

PS

dont compare thief to engineer. Makes you look silly whne you look at ust how many evasive manouvers thief has.