Budget gear build for HoT and onward

[Thriceblinded.9126]

Very newly back from 2013ish with HoT and PoF purchased, and I'm looking for some kind of starting place with a build for digging into the story content and some open world stuff.

My engineer is level 80 and has a few sets of exotic armor with somewhat matching accessories/rings/amulet. I have Auxiliary, Rampager, Berserker, and Soldier sets. Essentially no Rune/Sigils at all, just some orbs/jewels that match each set, and about 29 gold to my name. Overall I have a bit more condition focused gear than power, but I can sort of make a set for either I guess. I did 100% world completion way back, so I've unlocked all the core skills/specializations with 202 hero points to spare - and I've not put any into either elite specialization yet.

So the main question is - what kind of build can I pull off with limited mega-budget gear that I can grow into throughout HoT and PoF. I'm assuming I should do a Core build for now since I don't think I have enough hero points to fully unlock either elite spec, but I'll take any advice I can get on that.

I don't have a preference for Scrapper or Holosmith, both sound fun to me. I'm pretty flexible here I just don't want to feel totally underpowered without a lot better gear and no money to fix it.

[Dawdler.8521]

Well you already have berserker for power. There is no "alot better gear", only ascended (which you wont afford anyway). Swap chest for your soldiers or something if you need some more bulk. Of course you want runes and sigils, but that's comparably cheap. If you dont have ascended trinkets, that's going to be what you want to focus on finding first.

Just check out https://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki for builds. Look in the optional runes/sigils part of builds as that's probably going to be alot cheaper.

In particular if you start doing HoT/PoF story missions and going through PvE, you'll want to check out the achievements that award ascended.

[Laila Lightness.8742]

Soldier gear with doylak runes or carrion with rebirth or some cleric amor with rebirth runes it works great it might take longer to kill enemies but you be alive

[Viger.1347]

I went straight into HoT as a new player after beating the story in Core with nothing but a few exotic pieces and a bunch of rares and accessories from Karma merchants. I think you'll be fine with what you have.

[ZeroSkitzo.5403]

Along with what others said above, I would unlock gliding in HoT then go to POF and do that content first. You’ll unlock mounts as you go and the hero points are easier to solo. If you are sold on going in order, at least do the first POF story mission to get your raptor to make it faster to run through HOT. You bought both expacs so mine as well enjoy the best part of POF (mounts) as long as you can!

Edit: there are still plenty of HOT hero point trains going but you need gliding at a minimum to keep up with the train.

[Infusion.7149]

If you're still on core then you more or less need to utilize grenades and/or bomb kit for damage. I'd join a hero point train to unlock either elite spec however.

If you want a meta DPS build just run berserker's gear on holo, if you want a tanky build that works also in WVW then just swap to scrapper spec as the barrier generation is high., even more so with the reworked Explosives traitline.

I highly advise not using soldier's gear suggested above. If you have to run toughness at all put it on your free ascended trinkets from living story (cavalier/knight) and use marauder gear as armor , try to at least have nearly 2x crit damage (192% is full marauder before runes/sigils , versus 214% for Berserker) and roughly 50% crit chance. At least you can also use that gear in WVW , whereas soldier's gear hasn't been relevant in years because it has zero ferocity or precision which makes it useless when run as the sole stat for the entire equipment set.

Runes : there's quite a few runes that wouldn't cost you more than 6 gold for a whole set that aren't optimal but good enough for openworld PVE. Pack runes for example , eagle runes, infiltration runes all fit the bill.

There's a few cheap sigils that would help with damage that are below 10 silver such as Sigil of Air, Sigil of Accuracy, any slaying sigil (3% flat damage bonus), etc.

Like elementalist, engineer has benefit from weapon swap sigils because equipping kits counts so if you're short on gold you can get some of those as a stopgap. Sigil of battle is one of those sigils.

There's no reason to run tanky gear in openworld when barrier generation is so high on scrapper.

[Thriceblinded.9126]

@Infusion.7149 said:If you're still on core then you more or less need to utilize grenades and/or bomb kit for damage. I'd join a hero point train to unlock either elite spec however.

If you want a meta DPS build just run berserker's gear on holo, if you want a tanky build that works also in WVW then just swap to scrapper spec as the barrier generation is high., even more so with the reworked Explosives traitline.

I highly advise not using soldier's gear suggested above. If you have to run toughness at all put it on your free ascended trinkets from living story (cavalier/knight) and use marauder gear as armor , try to at least have nearly 2x crit damage (192% is full marauder before runes/sigils , versus 214% for Berserker) and roughly 50% crit chance. At least you can also use that gear in WVW , whereas soldier's gear hasn't been relevant in years because it has zero ferocity or precision which makes it useless when run as the sole stat for the entire equipment set.

Runes : there's quite a few runes that wouldn't cost you more than 6 gold for a whole set that aren't optimal but good enough for openworld PVE. Pack runes for example , eagle runes, infiltration runes all fit the bill.

There's a few cheap sigils that would help with damage that are below 10 silver such as Sigil of Air, Sigil of Accuracy, any slaying sigil (3% flat damage bonus), etc.

Like elementalist, engineer has benefit from weapon swap sigils because equipping kits counts so if you're short on gold you can get some of those as a stopgap. Sigil of battle is one of those sigils.

There's no reason to run tanky gear in openworld when barrier generation is so high on scrapper.

Thanks for the breakdown @Infusion.7149! Do you recommend any particular builds for Holo and Scrapper as you mentioned? There's a pretty huge variety of them on MetaBattle.

[Infusion.7149]

Any power DPS should be running explosives IMO , most people run firearms as well (for PVE to hit critical hit % cap).

I'd probably run something akin to the following if you have berserker and a limited budget:

• PVE DPS scrapper http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PeQAIlRw4YQMNWKO2LvteA-zRIYhipAXGlmA1WAqNA-e-- hitting crit cap means more barrier generation since damage output is higher
• PVE DPS scrapper with stunbreak+ extra survivability from marauder + trait swap http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PeQAIlRwsYQMNWKO+LvtOA-zRRYBRBWMxKjSTgaLA1GA-e-- swap bomb kit utility for Elixir U (stunbreak) or rocket boots for mobility , you could use Elixir Gun for stunbreak on toolbelt but generally that's better for condi heavy environments like WVW-- marauder allows higher HP pool = more maximum barrier (barrier capped at 50% HP)
• PVE DPS holo http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PegAwqlJw4YasIGKO2LvvVA-zRIYhipBXGtlA1WAmMA-e-- holo sustain relies on cycling photon forge for heat therapy-- engaging with corona burst (Photon Forge 3) is an explosion which triggers Big Boomer heal and Crystal Configuration: Eclipse barrier-- if you need to swap a utility , get rid of laser disk-- Photo Forge has as much cleave as bomb kit (hits 5 enemies) ; because P.F. has such high damage you just want a kit or two to prevent overheat when the Engage Photo Forge toggle (F5) is on cooldown.

The site doesn't have slaying sigils so that's why I have impact on there.