Mechanist Builds and Tips

[Jerus.4350]

I wanted to share some builds I've been running and having a lot of success with as well as some little tips I've learned so far.  I'd love to hear other cool things people have found and any neat synergys.

Condi Alacrity: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PekAoqlxy0YdMXWKOWL5xUA-zxIY1oh/M6QBEiEwjzSgTbA-e

I'm pretty sure there are better rune choices than Leadership, but I was prepared for less base Alac duration, so it's the gear I had and I haven't changed anything yet. You need a little less than 50% boon duration for 100% Alacrity uptime without taking Barrier Signet (which doesn't add much due to ICD of Barrier>Alacrity trait), but personally I like a little extra because I'm not perfect.

Simple rotation: Pistol 4/3/2>Shrapnel Grenade>Napalm>Flame Blast>Poison Gas Shell>GrenadeX3>Shrapnel Grenade>Grenade>Repeat   Use Freeze/Poison Grenades in place of any normal grenades when up, and sub Air Blast in for Napalm every other go around if it makes sense.

Plenty of room to improve on that rotation, but it's a simple one.   While you do that of course keep your mech commands on cooldown and watch where your mech is.  I like taking the long cast time of Pistol 2 to hit the commands.

Condi Signet Mechanist: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PekAoqlxy0YwMXWMOWL5xaA-zRJYmRD/Z0hCIEJgcnFFl2A-e

I'm loving this mainly because it's a simple 1 kit condi build for Engineer, and it performs pretty dang well.  I think some form of triple kit build with either FT or Bomb kit and Grenade/Mortar will end up being the ideal setup, but I'll let those better than myself figure that out.

Simple rotation: Throw Grenades!  Seriously though, similar to the rotation above, just sub in throwing grenades or hitting Superconducting Signet where you would have the FT/Mortar skills. Rotation is centered around Shrapnel Grenade with the pistol rotation after every other Shrapnel Grenade + 1XGrenade (throw one more grenade attack after the second shrapnel and your pistol skills will be ready).

Heal Alacrity Mechanist: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PekAk6lZw8YtMXWKeyTbxVA-zRJYjRDfZUdCkeB47s43BA-e

Tons of variations of this posted around.  I do think some of the variations I've seen might be better, higher Healing Power for more Barrier for example, but this is what I had and it's been working. Healing Turret is great, more self survival than Med kit and often more than enough group healing, especially with the extra blasts we have if you can use the combo field.  Med kit of course is a good idea on higher damage intake fights.  I like it on Boneskinner for instance, or anything I'm not comfortable with. If you notice I have the Mech Arms: Jade Cannons trait instead of the might producing Mech Arms: High-Impact Drivers that should be the default pick.  I did that to segue into the first tip.

 

Tips:
Mech Arms: Jade Cannons: Don't sleep on this trait, it can be the answer to a lot of the mech positioning issues you might be having.  Taking this trait makes the mechs Auto Attack ranged, meaning more or less stationary.  I used this on Boneskinner tonight and it worked as well as I could have hoped.  Once we had a safe window after engaging, I used Shift signet to place my mech in the center of Boneskinner and then we were in range for the barrier/buffs as we rotated around.  Obviously you're giving up Might or Condi damage to get this, but I think it's something worth considering for Alacrity or Heal roles that need more control of the Mech.

Shift Signet: Right now it's giving double duration buffs to your mech.  So if you use Elixir U, you get 12s of Quickness, your bot will get 24s.  I imagine this will be fixed eventually but for now, you can extra buff your mech.

It can be easier to find your mech while playing support looking for the light blue barrier numbers, specifically/especially on Meta's.

Fights that Kill your pet, and might be worth taking Elite Signet on (I'd love to know if anyone has any others):
Soo-Won in the Dragon's End Meta will kill your pet with the hand slam attack.  I've tried using Shift Signet to blink into the center in hopes it doesn't kill the mech, but it didn't work.  
Echovald Meta Boss will also kill your pet with the hand clap, using Shift Signet to move you and the mech into the safe spot is convenient and a solution to the problem as long as your pet doesn't run right out, so I like using Barrier Burst right after I Shift, which happens to be a similar timer.
New Kaineng Strike some of the "Lieutenants" attacks will hit your pet, I haven't had it die but it's gotten very low, luckily I was playing support and easily shifted to include it in my med kit healing.

 

I'll end with my take on the Mechameme build with Golemancer runes:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PekAkqlZwsYvMXaBO8TbRVA-zxIY1ohvMSvACJB0fW87AA-e
Plenty of variations to be had with the Quad mech meme build (don't forget your Mini).  I went with this. Its mainly for an easy play style with 2 stunbreaks and stability for QoL..  Not great damage, but enough, and I'm spewing out boons for those around me while being kitten hard to kill.. I'm loving it for open world, and of course the first thing I did was go to the Uncatagorized Fractal to show the Raving Asura who the true Mech Master was.

 

EDIT:

Mistlock Singularities do not recharge Mech Command skills, so we can't prebuff and reset them.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Jerus.4350
Adding something

[Styopa.2538]

Having played a scrapper and holo pretty extensively I was generally meh on the mechanist when I took it through the first zone, trying to play it mainly like a pet class - rifle, let the pet do the work.

Meh.  Anet hates rifles.

But then I tried the 1h mace we got as the spec-special weapon.

O.

M.

G.

The damage.

I mean, you only have the three abilities - auto, a charge, and a short ranged (300? 450?).  Cooldowns are very fast and the damage was borderline absurd.  My arcdps was down but every nearly hit was 3000-5000 damage.  MUCH more damage than say, scrapper 2h hammer (which doesn't make any sense but whatever).

Seems like that's very much the intended tool for the job on the mech build.