WvW Condi Scrapper

Ok, so I took a break from Engineer to play some Guardian/Elementalist for a bit and now I'm back to experimenting with Scrapper. This is a build I've been playing for the last few days and thus far it seems to be doing well. It likely needs some more work but I think I'm getting happy results. Once I get around to getting some Condi related trinkets to support the build. Though it may need some improvements. I currently run with hammer, though I also have a rifle that I can use too if I need the range. I also vacillate between Stealth Gyro and Mortar Kit. Mortar Kit proves useful when zerging, though I mostly havoc squad with it.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASncTBlYhtbBWXBEqilJja8DqgIQM8KgAgeur79G-jVBFQBKVlHA8AAe3+DVSdABcBAAA-w

Tried in two browsers so you're missing gear or put a wrong link probably.I would say there's little reason to run hammer with condi spec over pistol though unless you're using it for blocks. I'm guessing you're using Tools instead of firearms (more condi focused) due to toolbelt recharges , though I would experiment with firearms more than tools traitline.

Most commanders will want you to do party healing in some fashion so if you go that route some plaguedoctor pieces might not be bad. You'd have to drop Tools for Medical Dispersion Field in the Inventions line if not bunker down (only use with precision).

It seems I forgot to add the gear. The head and shoulders are Dire and the rest are Grieving (the build has been updated accordingly to reflect that). I haven't added in trinkets yet because I'm still shopping for trinkets I like so I've been experimenting with different stats and I've yet to find a set that I like. Though I do lean heavily towards more Dire trinkets or perhaps something with a bit more Health to it.

I carry a set of pistols and intend to experiment with them later in the week to see if I get better results. I started out with hammer due to it being an overall better weapon comparative to pistols (oh why oh why are they not stronger) and intended to move to pistols after I got a feel for how it performs under hammer/rifle so that I can get a more accurate idea on whether or not pistols actually improve things. So they're the next step in the process.

Right now I run with small havoc squads or command myself sooo I haven't had to worry about what other commanders want me to be doing. My goal here is to see if I can make a viable condi build in the first place. Worrying about commanders wanting me to heal feels counterproductive to the goal I've set for myself.

If I would dare to publish a build like that, you guys would rip me apart, especially the holo-elite-faction. Anyway here are a few ideas:

The Bullwark Gyro proved to be effective in WvWvW due to its reflection dome. Last time I tested it, the dome was even capable of blocking catapult-projectiles, which is really nice when you siege a fortress and do not want your own weapon to be crashed.

The Motar is the best option for range, the stealth gyro also has this very funny area-reveal, which is highly effective against roaming thieves or portal-mesmers. Especially if you siege a fortress, randomly spamming it may prevent a sneak-attack.

You are mostly the rifle-kids, I know that by now. I just prefer p/p or p/s. p/p is more effective fighting larger groups, as due to the explosion of the auto-attack and the several multi-target options. p/s is my personal favourite, because of the additional blast-finisher and the two blocks. Projectiles are still very common :S. Also if you run p/s, you can utilize the Overshield + Anticorrosionplanting synergy to grant protection & cleanses to your allies. If you run Inventions, Mecha Legs or Experimental Turrets (with Thumper Turret) can be nice.

I would also recommend you to try the Medic Gyro, because of the mass-protection and the movable water-field. If combined with the above paragraph, you are even useful for your team (mini support). You can play 100% on damage-gear or use some ... Seraph parts, for better boon-duration. Big advantage of engineer is, our healing scales too low. So we can run support even with full damage gear and barely notice a change (exclusion: full heal stats).

Runing condition without firearms trait is questionable, but who am I telling this? Same goes for Air sigil in a condition build. Malice is always a good option, or the specific sigil for your main condition source. If you decide to run fire-arms, smoldering. A good damage rune-combination I currently run on my condition scrapper is: 5x Trapper + 1x Afflicted. If you really want to stick to hammer, I am currently running a test-build with a 6x Aristocrat Rune Set. All you need to do is replacing Rapid Regeneration for Expert Examination (= the useless trait). It adds quick might boost to your already powerful aoe-stun. This also works with p/s, for the Throw Shield.

Happy Holidays!

@HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:The Bullwark Gyro proved to be effective in WvWvW due to its reflection dome. Last time I tested it, the dome was even capable of blocking catapult-projectiles, which is really nice when you siege a fortress and do not want your own weapon to be crashed.

Yea, no. Nothing can block siege projectiles, except shield gens and catas.

As for the build, why berserker rune? Why not pure condi one?

@HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:If I would dare to publish a build like that, you guys would rip me apart, especially the holo-elite-faction. Anyway here are a few ideas:

Rip it apart!!! Don't hold back on my account. It only gets better when people tear it up and I make improvements from there. Like I said, it's something I've been tinkering with, with results that I'm liking thus far, but I'm sure there is room for improvement. Also, I think there is a growing interest in non-Holosmith options right now, a renaissance if you will. There are a lot of Core and Scrapper discussions going on these days. Holosmith will always be my favorite but I'm enjoying the challenge that Scrapper presents in viability.

The Bullwark Gyro proved to be effective in WvWvW due to its reflection dome. Last time I tested it, the dome was even capable of blocking catapult-projectiles, which is really nice when you siege a fortress and do not want your own weapon to be crashed.

I'll keep that in mind for when I'm sieging. Like I said though, I mostly havoc with it.

The Motar is the best option for range, the stealth gyro also has this very funny area-reveal, which is highly effective against roaming thieves or portal-mesmers. Especially if you siege a fortress, randomly spamming it may prevent a sneak-attack.

Yeah, the Reveal is nice. Though, against Deadeye, it's useless. I tend to use it mostly for escape or to scatter and reposition.

You are mostly the rifle-kids, I know that by now. I just prefer p/p or p/s. p/p is more effective fighting larger groups, as due to the explosion of the auto-attack and the several multi-target options. p/s is my personal favourite, because of the additional blast-finisher and the two blocks. Projectiles are still very common :S. Also if you run p/s, you can utilize the Overshield + Anticorrosionplanting synergy to grant protection & cleanses to your allies. If you run Inventions, Mecha Legs or Experimental Turrets (with Thumper Turret) can be nice.

I'll likely incorporate pistol/pistol after I'm satisfied with the traits and the utilities I use. I like to focus on one aspect at a time so that I know which change had which effect. I don't think I'm going to use turrets though. I find myself on the move too much to get good use out of them. Also, I'm of the opinion that kits support a condi build better than turrets.

I would also recommend you to try the Medic Gyro, because of the mass-protection and the movable water-field. If combined with the above paragraph, you are even useful for your team (mini support). You can play 100% on damage-gear or use some ... Seraph parts, for better boon-duration. Big advantage of engineer is, our healing scales too low. So we can run support even with full damage gear and barely notice a change (exclusion: full heal stats).

I've considered Medic Gyro but Healing Gatorade offers me more boons (Might, Regen, Protection, and Swiftness). Since my goal isn't to provide support, I haven't placed a high priority on pumping out heals for everyone.

Runing condition without firearms trait is questionable, but who am I telling this? Same goes for Air sigil in a condition build. Malice is always a good option, or the specific sigil for your main condition source. If you decide to run fire-arms, smoldering. A good damage rune-combination I currently run on my condition scrapper is: 5x Trapper + 1x Afflicted. If you really want to stick to hammer, I am currently running a test-build with a 6x Aristocrat Rune Set. All you need to do is replacing Rapid Regeneration for Expert Examination (= the useless trait). It adds quick might boost to your already powerful aoe-stun. This also works with p/s, for the Throw Shield.

Actually, for the pistols, I'm likely going to run Doom and Geomancy to add additional stacks of Bleeding and Poison. I'm not into Malice all that much as I'm less concerned about duration and more concerned with immediate damage. I encounter far too many Guardian/Firebrands in WvW for me to think it would last long enough to matter. As I mentioned to Infusion, I'm using hammer right now since I'm focusing on other aspects and I prefer to make changes and adjustments one step at a time. Hammer lets me gauge how well my utilities and some of my trait selections are holding up before I add in my weapons.

@Samug.6512 said:

@HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:The Bullwark Gyro proved to be effective in WvWvW due to its reflection dome. Last time I tested it, the dome was even capable of blocking catapult-projectiles, which is really nice when you siege a fortress and do not want your own weapon to be crashed.

Pure condi? The primary stat is condition while the secondary is power. So I'm testing them out. The sixth rune ability gives me a +5% bonus to damage and condition damage. So I'm testing them out. I don't really care too much for duration bonuses so I don't focus on that. I encounter a lot of Guardians/Firebrands providing support so that mitigates the effectiveness of duration based bonuses. This leads me to focus more on damage and initial damage stacks as opposed to damage over time. So I'm testing these runes to see how well they do.

The hammer with high condition damage and lack of Firearms or Explosives traits seems counterproductive to what you're trying to do here.Your only sources of condition damage are the Elixer Gun and grenades, which are OK ... if they hit.The problem with grenades is how they're sooooo slow. While fighting a flighty thief or mesmer you either throw them at your feet or don't even attempt them at range.Also, since the only conditions you'll be stacking are bleed, poison and some vulnerability, it seems a waste to invest so much into condition damage.

Pistols, however. If you break out the pistols, then this is worth considering.One thing I noticed playing a condi scrapper is that a cover condition is essential. Toughness is necessary to stay alive long enough.And, well, this may surprise you: Alchemy is not a necessity.I recommend a combination of Rabid (for precision) and Trailblazer stats. Firearms will be needed for stacking multiple conditions with pistols.And finally: Sigil of Torment. You need at least this sigil to cover all the bleeds/burns/poison/confusion you inflict, and hence why you need some precision.

If you really want to use grenades, don't underestimate the Explosives traitline. In fact, hammer/'nades could be a thing with the Grenadier and Shrapnel traits.'Nades for your offense, hammer for your defense. Don't forget as well: vulnerability stacks also increase condition damage.Personally, I like running pistols/toolkit. That toolkit's 12 second cooldown block is so good mixed with bleeds from Box of Nails and Prybar's confusion.

For runes, I recommend Runes of Aristrocrat if you run Alchemy and Elixer Gun (You'll see why. Try it out in the PvP Lobby);or Runes of the Undead if you have ALOT of toughness.Runes of Balthazar are also REALLY good if you have no vitality and do a lot of burning.

I play condi scrapper in WvW pretty much exclusively now. I'll copy/paste my thoughts from the other thread:

@coro.3176 said:

@"Shaogin.2679" said:So has anyone had any luck running a condi engineer roaming build for WvW? Just something I want to try but I'm not sure where to start or if it is even possible.

Here's a lazy completely unedited clip of how it plays in a small fight. Excuse the terrible music. YouTube autoplay in the background went to a bad place..

Pistols > Hammer by a lot. Hammer is great for power and support. If you're playing the condi game though, you need offhand pistol's damage and mainhand pistol's cover and utility.

Yeah, as I've said numerous times, I like to make additions and changes one step at a time. Thus while I'm working out utilities and trait lines I'm using hammer so I can gain a better perspective on their value before pistols come into play. Folks keep saying I need to be using pistols but I've explained that hammer is there as my baseline weapon while I see if things like Grenades and Elixir Kit make me happy.

@Dace.8173 said:Yeah, as I've said numerous times, I like to make additions and changes one step at a time. Thus while I'm working out utilities and trait lines I'm using hammer so I can gain a better perspective on their value before pistols come into play. Folks keep saying I need to be using pistols but I've explained that hammer is there as my baseline weapon while I see if things like Grenades and Elixir Kit make me happy.Well good luck with the latter. Cause I'm guessing its not going to. Grenades just dont work in WvW against moving targets. EG is a good complementary kit but its almost useless for condi damage. In a hammer+EG+GK condi combo I wonder what you can even do against anything thats not a drooling idiot standing still wondering what end of a staff is used for hurting. And in particular I would wonder why condi. It would be like a condi mirage going GS/GS.

Your goal is a Condition build? but you wear a gear combination for a hybrid build and slot almost exclusively power damage sources. Surely you can see how backwards this is? First determin what role you want to play and with what weapons (if not a pure support build) you want to do it with.

I made an example test build for a small scale havoc group (not for solo roaming) assuming you are content with (Power focused) hybrid damage and WANT to use grenades. (Retaliation no problem for you?)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFASnUUBlYhtbBGpCEqiF2iiO4P+k/LpywDAMELxAA-jVyHQB/UFHhoMQZPAAxoDQRqHcm9HSqSPnqEEAXAgAAHAnfeA48zP/8zPvmf+5nf+5nf+5nXKAzEaB-w

I dont know if this build will be effective and will serve your needs but that is why it is a test build. (I never even played scrapper)

Change the traits if you want but the following are important for these reasons:-"Grenadier" to make it easier to hit people.-"Schrapnel" to add some condition damage source to your grenades (synergyzes with "Sanguine Array")-"Sanguine Array" with grenade kit #2 on multiple enemies you will gain quite a few might stacks, also every 1 in 3 grenades will proc "Schrapnel" and thus "Sanguine Array"-weak "Incendiary Powder" as an extra condition damage source

(If in hindsight condition damage is not important to you, you can try to slot power gear and drop the Firearms traitline for inventions (mid, bottom, top) , slot Medic gyro (= lots of condie cleanses) , change runes, ...) (=more defensive)(Hell, If you think you can hit people without the "Grenadier" trait, you can even try to drop explosives for tools or alchemy )

(I used the 2 best sigils in WVW but you might disagree)

Tweak the gear to get the desired stats that you want.

Soldier, Cavelier, Knight = tanky + power damageGrieving = power focused hybrid (glass)Celestial =all stats (a little more power focused imo)Viper, Carrion, Sinister = hybridTrailblazer , Dire, Rabid = tanky + condition damage

@coro.3176 said:I play condi scrapper in WvW pretty much exclusively now. I'll copy/paste my thoughts from the other thread:

@coro.3176 said:

@"Shaogin.2679" said:So has anyone had any luck running a condi engineer roaming build for WvW? Just something I want to try but I'm not sure where to start or if it is even possible.

@PierPiero.9142 said:

@coro.3176 said:I play condi scrapper in WvW pretty much exclusively now. I'll copy/paste my thoughts from the other thread:

@coro.3176 said:

@"Shaogin.2679" said:So has anyone had any luck running a condi engineer roaming build for WvW? Just something I want to try but I'm not sure where to start or if it is even possible.

tools. It's better than alchemy with no elixirs. Traited Rocket Boots and Toolkit

@coro.3176 said:

@PierPiero.9142 said:

@coro.3176 said:I play condi scrapper in WvW pretty much exclusively now. I'll copy/paste my thoughts from the other thread:

@coro.3176 said:

@"Shaogin.2679" said:So has anyone had any luck running a condi engineer roaming build for WvW? Just something I want to try but I'm not sure where to start or if it is even possible.

No defensive trait other than barrier. Why not taking A.E.D. Then ?

@Samug.6512 said:

@HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:The Bullwark Gyro proved to be effective in WvWvW due to its reflection dome. Last time I tested it, the dome was even capable of blocking catapult-projectiles, which is really nice when you siege a fortress and do not want your own weapon to be crashed.

Actually bulwark bubble did. I think it was silent nerfed in the last balance patch.

@EUmad.7645 said:

@coro.3176 said:

@PierPiero.9142 said:

@coro.3176 said:I play condi scrapper in WvW pretty much exclusively now. I'll copy/paste my thoughts from the other thread:

@coro.3176 said:

@"Shaogin.2679" said:So has anyone had any luck running a condi engineer roaming build for WvW? Just something I want to try but I'm not sure where to start or if it is even possible.

• AED cooldown is too long (too much time without a heal is risky and can be punished by a lot of focus if they catch you when it's down)
• AED puts control in opponents hands. If they're good, they can wait out your heal and kill you when it expires. It's different on Holo where you can overheat to force yourself to die if needed. On Scrapper you don't have that option.
• no team support (HT shares a lot of its healing and cleanse with nearby allies)
• AED has no water fields - sometimes it's enough to just use regenerating mist and blast that with rocket boots for a slight heal rather than use the full turret.
• AED only cleanses damaging conditions and only if you die. Sometimes you want a more on-demand cleanse to clear something like weakness or vuln.
• HT can be picked up to shorten the cooldown to 15s if you need slightly faster cleanse (eg. vs a condi mesmer)
• overall healing output is similar if you factor in regenerating mist and water blasts, but HT is way more reliable

Also, I'm running all the Scrapper defensive traits and traited toolkit for more frequent Gear Shield. That helps a lot.