Scrapper WvW Gearing Advice

[Tyr.1965]

I'm mostly a solo player who will run with zergs if they're around or I'll go off and cap camps by myself if they're not. So the med kit scrapper build on MetaBattle doesn't suit my playstyle. It's not offensive enough. Should I go full Marauder or mix in some Commander's, Wanderer's, Diviner's, or some other prefix I'm not thinking of? I'm trying to go for a tanky damage dealer that's capable of running alone or in groups with the same set of armor. Any suggestions?

[Dawdler.8521]

Since the basic demand for scrapper group play is full minstrel anticondi heal bot and that goes directly against solo play, there is no such full "hybrid" that would be deemed "good" at both. The patch made it impossible since you now need massive power damage if you want to be any kind of tanky with barriers, yet condi/healer is the only way to have enough stats to do both decent (2 vs 4) with just some trait switches. You're going to have to give up either healing or damage.

The simplest way to go is probably celestial+antitoxin and hope for the best while going solo (you wont really compete with any roamer but sure you can cap camps). Worst case scenario, keep a secondary set of trinkets to either focus healing (minstrel) or power (marauders). You'll probably also want a different weapon set for it due to sigils.

[Tyr.1965]

I don't really care about healing in groups. I just follow tags as a pug. The "massive power damage" is what I'm going for. I just don't know if full Marauder is going to be tanky enough or if I should add some toughness and/or concentration for good measure.

[Dawdler.8521]

Ah.

Then the answer is no, its not tanky enough but marauders is pretty much your only option anyway if you want alot of damage. Guess you can go maybe 400 toughness with some power/prec/tough gear.

But you will be be pretty useless to a pug group, the engie has nowhere near the ranged AoE to simply be another random dps support. As a stealthy backline flanker it would be better, but then I would argue p/p condi does it better due to many backliners having very poor condi cleanse and condi gives the choice to build full tank (ie survive when that single rev in the primary group turn around and look at you).

But I digress. Theres no build that does everything. Sounds like you've already specced out marauders. Again, trinkets will be enough to shift for some toughness so armor/weapons is pretty set.

[Prinzsecond.4863]

Tried out several power scrapper builds but non could satisfy. So I went back to condi scrapper again, with Focus on mobility and tankyness, you can easily win a 1v2 when they are not prepared for condi cleanse.

[Dediggefedde.4961]

For zergs I found a nice power-scrapper build.In publics I often reach max-damage in arcdps. Mortar-1 hitting for 6k is also fun against objectives.The new scrapper line would be top-bot-bot. top-top-top would be tankier, but loosing a lot of damage.Yesterday I played it with my guild in a 20-player setup. It still works, but was a bit riskier.

I'm not the one who made the video ;)Rest of the build is in the video description.

[DemonSeed.3528]

@Prinzsecond.4863 said:Tried out several power scrapper builds but non could satisfy. So I went back to condi scrapper again, with Focus on mobility and tankyness, you can easily win a 1v2 when they are not prepared for condi cleanse.

Which build you running ATM?

[Turkeyspit.3965]

@"Dediggefedde.4961" said:

I get the video is pre-patch, but I'm still not sure what the point of the build is? I'm clearly missing something., because as I see it, rather than plinking away at them with Mortar Kit, why not just run Staff Ele and actually down people?

And Sneak Gyro and Purity of Purpose remain one of the best zerg supports in the game (esp now that ANET all but deleted Chrono), so if you're going to bother running with a zerg, might as well go full Medi Scrapper and have a major impact rather than a minor one.

As I said, unless I'm missing something here - by all means please point it out to me.

[Tyr.1965]

As far as utilities go, I'm running with the Mortar Kit for the added ranged. I know I'm not running a "meta" build even for a pug zerg, but I don't really care. I'm just playing to have fun. Right now for me, that means playing the Scrapper with an outdated build. As far as gear goes, it's currently a mix of Marauder trinkets, Berserker weapon, half Berserker armor, and half Soldier armor. It's a mess, I know. I'm gonna try swapping the Berserker armor for Marauder but I don't know what to swap the Soldier for, if I should swap at all. I'm considering either Commander and Wanderer. Is Vitality better than Toughness for Engineers or should I have a bit of both? And is Concentration good for what I'm going for or will I not be able to get enough of it from a few pieces of gear to make a difference?

[Jaruselka.5943]

I had a salty comment...but thought better of it

[Dediggefedde.4961]

@"Turkeyspit.3965"I down a lot of people with that build. It's also easy to get top damage.The damage is more constant and less off-site as with ele, you distribute a bit of might and much more superspeed and are a bit more tanky. There is the "cleave" damage with large radius due to blast/shredder/hammer, and the ranged stun/pressure due to hammer/mortar.As an example, a glassy build standing on a wall is hit 2-3 times and goes down. Same with metishower, but mortar-1 is without AoE-field-warning and at 0.5s CD.

I agree that support-scrappers are still one of the best supporters in-game.But this build is in my opinion still a viable power build for zergs.Also, thread opener requested an offensive zerg scrapper build/gear. That build uses valkyr/bersi stats, btw. ^^

[Turkeyspit.3965]

@Dediggefedde.4961 said:@"Turkeyspit.3965"I down a lot of people with that build. It's also easy to get top damage.The damage is more constant and less off-site as with ele, you distribute a bit of might and much more superspeed and are a bit more tanky. There is the "cleave" damage with large radius due to blast/shredder/hammer, and the ranged stun/pressure due to hammer/mortar.As an example, a glassy build standing on a wall is hit 2-3 times and goes down. Same with metishower, but mortar-1 is without AoE-field-warning and at 0.5s CD.

I agree that support-scrappers are still one of the best supporters in-game.But this build is in my opinion still a viable power build for zergs.Also, thread opener requested an offensive zerg scrapper build/gear. That build uses valkyr/bersi stats, btw. ^^

That's fair. How has the Impact Savant change affected your build? I haven't played my Medi Scrapper in a while, but after the change, I feel even less encouraged to do so.

[Tyr.1965]

@Dediggefedde.4961 said:Also, thread opener requested an offensive zerg scrapper build/gear. That build uses valkyr/bersi stats, btw. ^^

So vitality is better than toughness? And what about concentration for boon uptime?

[Dediggefedde.4961]

@Turkeyspit.3965 said:That's fair. How has the Impact Savant change affected your build? I haven't played my Medi Scrapper in a while, but after the change, I feel even less encouraged to do so.

A couple points:

• It is not my build, so please give credit to the video author, if you like. ^^
• Impact savant made me feel incredible glassy at first. However, Damage-Dampener in heal-builds and 15% barrier in the power-build is pretty strong.
• Regarding the power-build the barrier generation is on scourge level, just more evenly distributed. In addition you have hammer-4, -3 and Elixir-S.
• In Heal-Builds I usually play shield, so you got the overshield-effect and damage-dampener, which is great to smooth out herald-bombs. With cleric gear I'm still comparable tanky to firebrands with 14k HP. At least that's my impression playing daily since the patch.
• I play mainly engi since 2.3k days, so I don't need much encouragement to play engi. ^^

@Tyr.1965 said:So vitality is better than toughness? And what about concentration for boon uptime?

• The build lacks cleanse. Main source is basically by whirl finishers. Which actually works. But in a zerg it is relying on supporter classes, like most other dmg builds. Thus, an increase in vitality gives more time against condis. Toughness is better against spike damage, which you might be able to avoid with superspeed, block, evade and elixir-s. But I guess you can also go more tanky or full offensive depending on the situation.
• In principle you can use diviner stats for boon duration. While roaming this might be pretty strong, since your blast-gyro has 50% uptime instead of 33% and quickness by applied force would be 42% instead of 30%. In a zerg fight this is less critical, since you usually are at might cap and there is some quickness given by fb. Other options (oil, sigil, rune, alchemy) usually are major tradeoffs in damage.

[Prinzsecond.4863]

@"DemonSeed.3528" said:

Which build you running ATM?

Link does kinda not work -.- here is the buildcode:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqansTB9dhFpC+ZBEqiF2iSsjmiZE8DLxAgu3H+kH-jFyZABCp+DAK9yc/hcVG8sSw7eAACeCAIRPAA-w

Explanation:

• Dire and Apothecary mix as med kit scales nicely with healing power (and so do water-field Combos)
• Rocket boots for high mobility to outrun a centaur-zerg (to counter the lower sustain since patch)
• Med Kit to make up for cleansing gyro -> sigil of cleansing + med kit #3 usually provide enough condi cleanse to fight against condi mesmers and scourges
• Bomb Kit for insane meele pressure (fire field, confusion, blind, CC)
• Rune of durability lowers condition damage significantly but also provides a lot of survivability, so I decided to go for it. If you prefer more condition damage go for rune of the undead

The build offers a bunch of explo finishers and Combo fields for stealth, might, heal whatever you prefer. Each of those giving superspeed.