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My core Engineer build for WvW roaming and small scale


Shroud.2307

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Build here.

This build does not have winning 1v1's and it is not meant for "competitive" use. Which means every fight against an equally skilled opponent will be an uphill battle and I do not recommend using this for serious game play.

Build run down

That said, it is effective at what it can do. Thanks to the ridiculous baseline duration of Swiftness granted by Streamlined Kits, the passive Concentration from Alchemy, and of course, the duration granted from Speed runes themselves, you can stack up to 7 minutes of Swiftness if you feel so inclined as to continuously swap to Toolkit when the trait passive refreshes.

This is important for the build because it doesn't use Rocket Boots, and it's primary source of damage is rifle. You need to be able to stay ahead of your opponent if you want to continue doing damage and staying alive. Speed runes do a great job at making this possible with the combined support of the Super Speed granted upon swapping to Toolkit and the Super Speed from Toss Elixir U.

In short, it's really fast and very effective at kiting even without having Rocket Boots. It also has some solid damage potential from the obvious skills of; Blunderbuss, Jump Shot, Throw Wrench and Pry Bar. At least in my own experience, it often only takes two of these skills either to down someone or to put them in critical shape. Jump Shot alone typically lands between 9k and 12k.

Firearms helps to benefit these skills by increasing your chances of critical hits in close range and adding some extra Ferocity from No Scope. Initially I was using Explosives but found that the minor trait, Evasive Powder Keg, will often ruin the stealth from Toss Elixir S. I think objectively, Explosives is a better choice over Firearms for the offensive benefits it grants, but the risk of being Revealed at the wrong time makes it not worth taking. That's just my two cents though. Stealthing to recover or reposition is too important for this build when considering how weak it is in comparison to many other builds, and the benefits of Firearms isn't irrelevant so the trade off is acceptable ( with all conditions met, you should have 103% crit chance. Usually it will be 78 - 93% ).

The whole gimmick of this build is staying ahead of or away from your opponent with your superior speed and waiting for a good time to combo with Overcharged Shot and/or Magnet in to a damage rotation. Toss Elixir X is a great way to completely shut down anyone who fails to avoid it and the build is capable of killing people before the transformation ends. Elixir X also provides some obvious advantages with the potential damage and mobility from Rampage or the multi-CC's from Tornado. Often times if I get Tornado, I'll just use it briefly enough to launch my target and blind them before exiting the transformation to pressure them while they're down.


I've been using this build for maybe a month now ( ? ) and have tweaked it to the point it's currently at, which I'm most happy with. I find I'm able to win a lot of fights I otherwise might not without certain traits, skills or stats and it fairs nicely even against much stronger builds. It is heavily reliant on hard kiting ( obviously ) and against certain builds, on landing Toss Elixir X. So no matter how well you play it, certain things like good Thieves or Revenants can be pretty well impossible to beat. Still, I've had a great deal of fun with this and will continue to use it for some time. I hope if anyone is interested in playing around with core, this build can either provide you with what you're looking for, or can be a template for something better.Hopefully soon I'll be getting a new computer so I can start recording again. My current computer has been having issues with it preventing me from doing so. But when I can, I'd love to share some footage of this build in action.

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Interesting.

Inspired by your post I briefly tried some core roaming too (30 - 60 min). Here is how my fights went:

  • Got ganked 4 times by a 5 man roaming group
  • While capturing a camp got ambushed by a reaper. However thanks to my speed runes I was able to run circles around the slow melee monster and gun him down.
  • Fought against a scrapper and was able to land full Rifle #4 -> Rifle #3 -> Rifle #5 -> Toolkit #3. I also turned them into a moa and gunned down. Fought them again and got lucky spamming all my skills and somehow won again.
  • Kited another Reaper to death.
  • Dueled a very beginner weaver, after some kiting I was able to land some rifle combos and won.
  • Tried to fight a revenant, but got quickly deleted.

My build was a bit different, I wanted to use inventions and Bunker Down trait. I don't really know was it good.

I had fun time running core and will try it again soon :)

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@Coinhead.7591 said:Interesting.

Inspired by your post I briefly tried some core roaming too (30 - 60 min). Here is how my fights went:

  • Got ganked 4 times by a 5 man roaming group
  • While capturing a camp got ambushed by a reaper. However thanks to my speed runes I was able to run circles around the slow melee monster and gun him down.
  • Fought against a scrapper and was able to land full Rifle #4 -> Rifle #3 -> Rifle #5 -> Toolkit #3. I also turned them into a moa and gunned down. Fought them again and got lucky spamming all my skills and somehow won again.
  • Kited another Reaper to death.
  • Dueled a very beginner weaver, after some kiting I was able to land some rifle combos and won.
  • Tried to fight a revenant, but got quickly deleted.

My build was a bit different, I wanted to use inventions and Bunker Down trait. I don't really know was it good.

I had fun time running core and will try it again soon :)

I'm very happy to hear that :D. I imagine you know how to use Engi quite well if you've already had success such as that.

I find decent Thieves and Revs to be extremely hard to fight with this build, to the point that when I see them I'll usually go straight defensive. Regardless of terrain advantages, as long as the Thief/Rev is decent I feel like I have to completely rely on landing Toss Elixir X to win.

Otherwise, every other fight is just a matter of patience and knowing when to go for your Overcharged Shot rotation.

If you come up with something you think is better than what I've posted here, feel free to share. I'd love to see less Holos and more Engi's running around, lol.

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My trailblazer core engie has very similar setup (except obviously condi traits in firearms) and I have met core rifle engies like this and well... most are pretty much no match. It has some cleanse, but not enough too overcome your condi, while the rifle is about as slow a weapon as pistols. Without as much evades, reflects and stab as a scrapper, its just one pull away from failing the healing turret. And without as much cc as a holo, it doesnt really have the roflstomp pressure to keep you on the defensive.

I would highly recommend at least tossing that crappy boon duration sigil and replace it with sigil of cleansing. Its very effective on engineers since one sigil is the eqvivalent of 2 on most other classes, due to the toolkit swaps.

Or dont I mean if you dont think you need it all the better for me.

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@Dawdler.8521 said:My trailblazer core engie has very similar setup (except obviously condi traits in firearms) and I have met core rifle engies like this and well... most are pretty much no match. It has some cleanse, but not enough too overcome your condi, while the rifle is about as slow a weapon as pistols. Without as much evades, reflects and stab as a scrapper, its just one pull away from failing the healing turret. And without as much cc as a holo, it doesnt really have the roflstomp pressure to keep you on the defensive.

I would highly recommend at least tossing that crappy boon duration sigil and replace it with sigil of cleansing. Its very effective on engineers since one sigil is the eqvivalent of 2 on most other classes, due to the toolkit swaps.

Or dont I mean if you dont think you need it all the better for me.

A Cleansing Sigil is definitely a wise choice if you think you can't depend on your turret. As you'd said, not being able to get off your heal pretty much means certain death otherwise. Unfortunately this is a problem with more than just condi builds though. Thieves who know how to use Headshot are another scary fight for just that reason. Concentration sigil isn't completely necessary, I just included it because it's what I use and I like to further boost the Swiftness and Vigor durations. You could also take Inventions instead of Firearms, but I think that might neuter the damage too much to be worth it unless you change more than just the traits.

Personally I don't have any trouble against condi builds even with only one cleanse. I don't consider myself exceptionally skilled, but I do have a lot of experience and know when to play it safe. The only condi builds I struggle with are condi Mirages, everything else is fairly easy, especially if I can land a Moa on them, which is what I usually try to do against anything that I can't pressure without kiting so hard I have to OOC. Condi Mirages and condi Thieves who don't over commit are the only condi builds I can't beat without abusing OOC or landing a Moa. The build simply doesn't have the staying power or damage to succeed otherwise.

As I'd stated in the OP, this build definitely has some serious weaknesses. But I think considering it's core, and power rifle at that, it's quite effective at what it can do. Just takes some settling in to before you understand what it's capable of. And of course most importantly, have fun with it (:

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I tried something very similar lately, but with Scrapper instead of Firearms, and with Static Discharge. Object In Motion (increased damage output with Swiftness, Stability and Superspeed) plays super nice with Kinetic Battery, Toolkit with Streamlined Kits and Kinetic Stabilizer. Hammer if you need defence, Rifle if you feel ballsy.

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Updated build.

I've adjusted it a little more and the more I play it the less weak I feel. It has a ridiculous health pool on top of extremely high movement speed, a low cooldown block, a source of Stealth, an Invulnerability and not an irrelevant damage rotation.

Again as I'd said in the OP, this is just a build I've really enjoyed and had a lot of success with. If you feel you would prefer to adjust it, but like the spirit of the build, by all means see what you can do to create a version more comfortable for you.

I'm currently testing Cruelty Sigil to see what the difference is like between Bloodlust, Force and Cruelty. With full Cruelty stacks + the additional Ferocity from No Scope, the build has a whopping 234% Ferocity on top of almost guaranteed crit chance at close range. I think you could use any combination of Sigils and still be relatively effective, but I particularly enjoy the stats as they currently are.

I apologize for bumping my own thread, just wanted to continue to show my work on this and to help any others that are interested in good old core Engi.

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