Calling meta build hounds; Elixir Gun idea help.

[Hashire Kazemeijin.6719]

Longtime player here. I've been looking to redo the gear of a lot of my outdated and forgotten alts to have options when the mood strikes. Normally, that has consisted of picking an elite spec and focusing on that, but for engineer, my favorite fantasy theme for the class is still "alchemist", and I'm just not too terribly interested in any of the engie elite specs (mech is the closest).

I know the elixir skills aren't too popular in meta builds, and the elixir gun is basically never used and is the furthest thing from meta viable as possible, but I still wanna focus on the elixir gun as my engie's main weapon, and packing the elixir skills for utility (though I could see having one utility and the elite not being elixir if it's something significantly strong and synergistic), and so I'd like the opinions and ideas of those who are the 'gameplay above all' types to help make something elixir focused that's as close to viable and optimized as possible.

That said, despite myself being a long time player, I don't really have a good idea on how to do it myself (all rare-tier carrion gear? Yeah I picked that back in the day for him). Sinister gear for the extra strike power? Ritualist for adding concentration to the mix due to elixir skills focusing on buffs a lot, while still mainly focusing on conditions as the main elixir gun damage? What kind of optimal traits for this kind of setup? Any elite specs that would synergize and add to the theme without overtaking it?

Any opinions on making an optimized elixir gun "alchemist" build would be very appreciated.

Edit: This is for general solo/duo PvE.

Edited August 10, 2023 by Hashire Kazemeijin.6719

[Limbo.4087]

To begin with, what game mode are you talking about and what role do you want to play?

[Stalima.5490]

If it is mainly fun you are looking for you could have a look at the "Attribute distribution table" on the wiki to see what kind of balance you want in your build and go from there:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Attribute_combinations

 

but do keep in mind the elixir gun is weighted more towards benefitting from power.

Edited August 9, 2023 by Stalima.5490

[Dawdler.8521]

1 hour ago, Hashire Kazemeijin.6719 said:

Sinister gear for the extra strike power? Ritualist for adding concentration to the mix due to elixir skills focusing on buffs a lot, while still mainly focusing on conditions as the main elixir gun damage?

The elixir gun is absolute trash for damage no matter what you do. It's far weaker than the pistols which should tell you all you need to know if you know your pistol. Therein lies the problem - every second you spend in elixir gun is a second you could use focusing on something else that's actually useful. IMO it only serve a few narrow purposes: pure WvW support when you happen to have a slot available and is out of ideas for anything else and possibly as a target painter maintaining 100% weakness on it. Both things require you to be a second fiddle to someone however.

So you're never going to be the elixir gun hero, sorry.

[Dadnir.5038]

Elixir gun? Only 3 skills worth of note:

• Acid bomb can be nice in a dps rotation
• Healing mist and super elixir are useful for healing build.

Beyond that, I personally don't see any reason to use the kit.

[JohnnyRico.8591]

E-gun outside of support is not all that great. If you want to fool around for theme/fun, you could try something like Firearms/Alch/X

HGH, Sanguine Array (might on bleed), Earth/Strength sigils, Aristocracy rune (5x might on weakness). Egun provides bleed/weakness on auto. Having said that, you could be using other better skills rather than auto'ing for might. Also don't know what game mode you are looking at, almost anything can work for open world.

For gear, maybe vipers? or viper with some cele mixed in for boon duration.

Good luck

 

[Stalima.5490]

I'm not really sure what they could do with the elixir gun to improve it, maybe focus it more as a fully dedicated debuff weapon? like apply frost for a second on tranq dart, have heavy torment on acid bomb, maybe increase the poison duration on fumigate, maybe immobilise on globshot so it can sync with acid bomb better

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

My pick would be:
- Aristocracy runes due to the weakness-synergy, so permanent 25 might is done
- Stat wise I would go for a combination of Rabid and Bringers
- Alchemy, Fire Arms and Explosives

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PewAoq7lFwqYWMPWKOKL5pPA-zRQYcky6oIXI5ECxlARUAuPLnKtBVA-e

With the charged kill-stack-sigil, you end up around 2k condition damage.

I have a similar build in use at the moment, which just camps Flame Thrower. While it uses other stats and runes, the final stats are mostly the same. So I did a small field-test ...
Might and Fury: ~ 17-20 Bleed Stacks, that is roughly 4,100 DPS (auto-attack only)
Full Buffs: 25-30 Bleed Stacks, roughly 5,400 DPS (auto-attack only)

Mechanist alternative:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PewAoq7lFwgZuMPWKOKL5xKA-zRQYcky6oIXI5ECxlARUAuPLnKtBVA-e
(all Mech skills on auto-cast)

Might and Fury: 10,500 DPS (auto-attack + Superconducting Signet used off cooldown)
Full Buffs: ~ 12,000 DPS (auto-attack + Superconducting Signet used off cooldown)

If you are fine with the Mechanist, try it with the Mechanist.

[Hashire Kazemeijin.6719]

10 hours ago, Limbo.4087 said:

To begin with, what game mode are you talking about and what role do you want to play?

Sorry, should have clarified. Mostly PvE solo/duo, as I don't really enjoy PvP/high end PvE content (raids and fractals are both more than my PC can handle and also very min-max meta focused), and I don't really have friends to play with anymore aside from one person who I made my last thread about.

 

Obviously I know it's not gonna be meta or 'good', even in PvE where people say anything works (as someone who's first guardian was mace/x + staff full cleric stats because the theme for him was to be a full on heal/support tank, this isn't actually that true). But it's sort of how I played competitive Pokemon back in the day. I usually liked trying to use a favorite that was bad/low tier, but I still went out of my way to make it as optimized and built around as possible to make it as viable as possible. So in this case, I'm looking for 'the strongest elixir-themed character as possible'.

3 hours ago, HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:

My pick would be:
(Actually helpful suggestions)

First off, thanks for the actual suggestion. Leaving me to my own choices tends to not ever work out otherwise I end up like the aforementioned guardian up there.

Since my main theme goal is to feel like the "potion/elixir alchemy master", how much would change if I were to settle and give up on the actual elixir gun kit (though I do love that thing thematically), and just stick with P/S or maybe even P/P (I need more characters that I actually wanna use shields on >.>), and kept the theme going with all the utility elixirs instead (again, elite can change because the elite elixir is a bit too RNG to be helpful).

Also I saw the 'half mechanist' idea, and I didn't know it could give a ton of condition damage. So that might also be an avenue for me to look at, even if I drop the e-gun for elixir B instead (more buffs are nice).

[Stalima.5490]

You might try an applied force scrapper with elixir X and play into mega might stacking if your mostly going solo.

The hammer and elixir gun tend to go quite well together, maybe even pop in tools to help lower the elite cooldown.

maybe diviner gear and brawler rune sets with elixir B and H for super steroids build?

Edited August 11, 2023 by Stalima.5490

[Hashire Kazemeijin.6719]

8 hours ago, Stalima.5490 said:

You might try an applied force scrapper with elixir X and play into mega might stacking if your mostly going solo.

The hammer and elixir gun tend to go quite well together, maybe even pop in tools to help lower the elite cooldown.

maybe diviner gear and brawler rune sets with elixir B and H for super steroids build?

What's the main synergy there? Just the combo field from e-gun into the leap/whirl of the hammer, or am I overlooking something?

[Hashire Kazemeijin.6719]

Something I tried myself as a sort of tinker job between the two suggestions.

I assume the Flamethrower build mentioned earlier is just the Flamethrower Farmer on MetaBattle, which has an option for core only elixir skills but prefers Scrapper. So I played around with the buttons a bit and took the Rabid/Bringers suggestion from the first post, but also the Scrapper traits from the second suggestion (dropping Explosives for Scrapper).

Aristocracy runes giving permanent might from the e-gun's permanent weakness, while Scrapper traits give permanent stability from all the might, and with the stability extra strike damage.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PewAoq7lFwqYWMPmKWyTftfA-zRQUcky6oIXKMy5ECxlARUAuPAVA-e

Downgraded the gear to exotic tier and removed the food/utility just due to the character being an alt and me not doing high end PvE stuff needed for ascended gear anyways (that and food being somewhat of a pain to get in large number due to only lasting 30 mins, though I do have a full on Gourmet Chef alt as well). It still retains a decent 55% crit chance at all times, and more realistically 70% due to the extra crit on bleeding enemies. If I happen to run into a world boss or the like, the resulting mob would probably have fury in it somewhere as well which would nearly be 100%, so I think that part is well off at least. At full stacks of might and corruption, it still hits 1500 condition damage as well as a 50% boost to duration.

Anyone well meaning with opinions on it? I Think this might be something I'd wanna try.

[Stalima.5490]

13 hours ago, Hashire Kazemeijin.6719 said:

What's the main synergy there? Just the combo field from e-gun into the leap/whirl of the hammer, or am I overlooking something?

well the hammer has a gap closer that can get you close quickly to use your acid bomb and the acid bomb is also a blast finisher which can let you apply aoe swiftness and aoe swiftness can increase your damage or regenerate your health depending on scrapper trait.

This combo essentially gives you a way to both engage and disengage from melee while being littered with utility between them, the EG also frees up your need to take a stun break with the toolbelt skill.

[draxynnic.3719]

One thing to watch out for is that the meta builds are usually designed for instanced team content, with DPS roles being all DPS by default. As a result, you'll only see elixir gun on a healing build there.

If you're playing solo, though, you don't have a healer to keep you alive, and some of those builds can be a bit glassy. Elixir gun in that context isn't something you're likely to camp, but if you run something like celestial it will add to your healing and condi cleanse, especially to allies, and (if not playing mechanist) give you a stunbreak. Plus, if you have it equipped, might as well use the damaging skills as well - just don't use the tranq dart auto unless its your only ranged attack or you really want the Weakness for some reason.

As noted above, the acid bomb is also a blast finisher, although ideally you'll probably want to blast a fire or water field rather than Super Elixir's light field unless you're really under condi pressure.

[Kuma.1503]

Elixir Gun is one of our best kits. It's sustain, damage, cleanse, support, stunbreak, and mobility all packed into a neat little package. 

There are a lot of different builds Elixir Gun works in, but if we're talking open world PvE, here are my two favorites. 

Immortal Elixir Holo 

First off an unkillable build for solo/duoing dungeons, fractals, bounties, legendaries, or really anything open world can throw at you. 

This build has everything a solo player could ask for. Good damage self-buffed 25 might, perma quickness, godlike sustain, cleanse, damage reduction... If you'd like. Elixir B can be swapped out for Hard Light Arena. It's the supportier option. It will grant you and anyone around you pulsing cleanses thanks to synergy with Anti Corosion Plating. It also grants pulsing protection, fury and regen. Useful when dealing with stationary enemies, or enemies that constantly corrupt your boons. Like the Awakened. 

Gear is Marauder with Durability runes. It can be repurposed into a tanky WvW build with good damage output. 

If that's not your cup of tea, you can swap out the Marauder stats for simple Berserker or Diviner pieces. Then swap out Durability for Scholar/Pack runes. The natural tankiness of this build is so high you should still have no issue surviving. 

 

Elixir Mechanist

Do you like having every raid boon on your self? 25 Might, Fury, Alacrity, quickness, AND some good vulnerability output on the side? Look no further. 

This build is both a good DPS and Support for when you've got a buddy with you. You gain 25 might by simply existing and auto attacking with your elixir gun. This will also transfer to your Mech and cause it to deal more damage. Your mech also generates AoE might on it's auto attacks. You can swap this out or a ranged mech if you wish. 

Quickness comes from using your Mech skills and chugging Elixir U. 

Alacrity from using Crisis Zone or generating Barriers. 

Vulnerability by hitting with your explosions. Aim Assisted rockets will periodically fire, inflicting damage and vuln. Mace 2 and 3 also inflict vuln. 

Weapons are Mace/Shield. These are your swap for any time you're under pressure, need to break defiance bars, or need to punch through reflects. Mace can also generate more barrier and alacrity for you. 

You can easily melt through anything in open world while being very tanky. 

 

The gear here also doubles as Alacrity Mechanist gear. It's a catch-all choice that can either function as condi alacrity mech gear or Heal alacrity. However the trade-off is that it isn't optimal at either. But It's more than good enough for powering through dungeon, strike, or T4 fractal runs. It's served me well for over a year. 

 

Edited August 13, 2023 by Kuma.1503

[Hashire Kazemeijin.6719]

Even more options to consider now. This is where I wish it wasn't such a costly endeavor to make entire new gear sets, because I wanna try some of these ideas.

Though for the two newest ideas

1 hour ago, Kuma.1503 said:

(Really good stuff)

How well do they function on a casual alt level? Namely, no foods/tuners and exotic tier gear over ascended?

[Drag You Down.2615]

On 8/10/2023 at 12:26 AM, Hashire Kazemeijin.6719 said:

This is for general solo/duo PvE.

Idk. What kind of function do you want elixir gun to have.

Elixir gun is the one my qheal Scrapper used the most. It removes condi, it heals, it has blast finisher, it gives you a movement skill. In general, it is very good for defensive and supportive build. So do you want to use it as a healer? Or something else?

But solo open world... I don't think it is designed for that.

[Kuma.1503]

3 hours ago, Hashire Kazemeijin.6719 said:

Even more options to consider now. This is where I wish it wasn't such a costly endeavor to make entire new gear sets, because I wanna try some of these ideas.

Though for the two newest ideas

How well do they function on a casual alt level? Namely, no foods/tuners and exotic tier gear over ascended?

Both work fine with exotics. The foods used are also dirt cheap. Especially the fried golden dumplings. 

[Hashire Kazemeijin.6719]

Good to know. I got some thinking to do now.