[Budget gear build for HoT and onward]

@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.

[Budget gear build for HoT and onward]

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.

[Favourite Leveling Zones]

Hi all,

Returning player from pre-HOT, leveling the only profession I didn't have before (Revenant). I just hit level 20 and am 3/4 finished with Snowden Drifts (Norn character), and I'm planning the zones I want to hit on the way up to 80. I can't recall the ones I've seen beyond the 1st and 2nd zone for each race starting area, so most of them will be fresh to me.

That being said, I'm looking for some inspiration from you folks on your favourite leveling zones. They can be your favourite due to visuals, story, how the zone flows for map completion/events, or any other criteria.

I'm hoping to hit the ones that most people seem to agree are worth checking out and stand above the others.

Note: I'm actually not sure if doing lower level zones greatly impedes leveling progress, or if it's all kind of equal - but I don't mind slowing down if the zones are great.

[Want to use DirectX 12 [DX12] for GW2? Here's a guide on using the D912PXY on Windows 10]

@Mack.3045 sweet, that worked! appreciate your time & help. I'll check out Megai more and see what I can do.

[Want to use DirectX 12 [DX12] for GW2? Here's a guide on using the D912PXY on Windows 10]

@Mack.3045 Awesome work on this. Just a question regarding Shadows - I've noticed with the current 2.2.1 version, a fresh install with no latest.pck (I played and let it build on its own) - shadows are not rendering on Ultra. They render on High and lower. Oddly - there's a bright area of no shadows around my character that increases with the shadows setting (low -> high).

[[NA][GoM][PvX] Unity [UNIT] recruiting for all modes and experience levels!]

Hey this sounds great, I'll take an invite for sure!