[PvP] Core Poison Engi - Pistol/Shield

[Eastcorn.5901]

In light of the changes proposed by Anet today, I came up with this PvP core engineer build to make use of the reduced cooldowns on some of the skills.http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqelUUhSsYJXwdLQ7FLsFF4HuBBwYbsjfRYNcRxGA-jJRHQB+rMACPBAA4BAAv9HAA

It deals damage by cycling poison skills on the enemy, and using the other skills as cover conditions. It's not bursty but it can drain an opponent by reducing healing (the proposed changes reduces a lot of the healing output and tankiness of many classes already).It stays alive by kiting in blind fields and Box of Nails (with Power Wrench, Box of Nails a slightly higher than 5 second CD).Condition removal is achieved through using shield skills (the secondary skills on shield also apply the protection), Healing Turret, comboing light fields and Super Elixir.Spam grenades to reveal stealthed enemies.

Honestly, imo it's trash.Meta builds burst like crazy and others are tankier and have more tools at their disposal. I don't see how core engi can compete against anything without holosmith or scrapper.

But whatever, let's have some fun with it.

[Vagrant.7206]

@"Eastcorn.5901" said:In light of the changes proposed by Anet today, I came up with this PvP core engineer build to make use of the reduced cooldowns on some of the skills.http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQJAqelUUhSsYJXwdLQ7FLsFF4HuBBwYbsjfRYNcRxGA-jJRHQB+rMACPBAA4BAAv9HAA

It deals damage by cycling poison skills on the enemy, and using the other skills as cover conditions. It's not bursty but it can drain an opponent by reducing healing (the proposed changes reduces a lot of the healing output and tankiness of many classes already).It stays alive by kiting in blind fields and Box of Nails (with Power Wrench, Box of Nails a slightly higher than 5 second CD).Condition removal is achieved through using shield skills (the secondary skills on shield also apply the protection), Healing Turret, comboing light fields and Super Elixir.Spam grenades to reveal stealthed enemies.

Honestly, imo it's trash.Meta builds burst like crazy and others are tankier and have more tools at their disposal. I don't see how core engi can compete against anything without holosmith or scrapper.

But whatever, let's have some fun with it.

I agree with your assessment. Looks like overall garbage. :tongue:

Some thoughts that occur to me (for the balance team):

• Maybe switch up juggernaut so that it adds toughness/vit per every kit on your bar. This might give core engineer enough room to breathe on its own. None of the kits are particularly powerful in PvP as it stands.
• The painfully obvious thing is that we don't have any damage increases to bleeding/poison/burning like a thief or guardian might. Those would go a long way to making condi engineer more viable in PvP.
• Alternatively, condi engi needs more cover conditions. Scourge practically breathes cover condis, and thief can spam cover condis. Engineer has to force it into their build and can only apply them slowly.

I honestly can't think of any way that the proposed "buffs" to engineer would meaningfully improve core engi or scrapper in PvP.

If I were being silly, I might suggest a "smack-em" build based on these skills:

• Static Shot
• Pry Bar
• Concussion Bomb

[Ardid.7203]

If anyone is wandering about, these are the changes Eastcorn is talking: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/29690/pvp-wvw-skill-split-release/p1

[Eastcorn.5901]

Yep. I think their solution to core engi's horrible survivability is to have us use blind fields, glue shot and nails as the means to kite enemies.

But there's nothing I can design using just core abilities that can withstand the abuse elite specs (and even other core specs) can dish out. Our weapon skills are so useless alone that I need to rely on a damage kit like Grenades or Bombs. Tool kit with the reduced cooldowns, however, is actually looking pretty nifty. Magnet is on a 13.2 second CD along with Gear Shield with Power Wrench.

Bomb Kit + Mortar Kit is a lot of blindness, but then your Bomb Kit will be your main DPS option, as you need the other two Utility skills for support/defense. Bomb Kit is great against classes that are forced into melee, like the Heavy classes, but lackluster in situations where the enemy can range you down or disengage easily. And it's not great for large points, like mid on Foefire.

The condi removal that was gutted from Alchemy and put into Inventions is AMAZING for Scrapper and Holosmith, but may have further put Core Engi into the ground, as the only way to generate enough Protection is through Inventions using Shield or Advanced Turrets + Thumper Turret. Main hand pistol is too weak on its own to be a threat.

And AED is still a high-risk-low-reward healing skill, even with the 2 second stun. The problem is that it has lower healing over time than heal turret (24 second CD with Gadgeteer compared to 20 seconds healing turret) and lacks the reliability. The stun also requires you to be in extremely close proximity, and only stuns one person. It's honestly never going to be reliable as Healing Turret without an increase in the numbers. The added Shocking Aura from Gadgeteer helps because it offsets the high 4 second CD.

So I dunno, looks like we'll only have Holosmith and Scrapper for the forseeable future. I guess this is why they call them Elite specs.

[Vagrant.7206]

@Eastcorn.5901 said:--snip--

So I dunno, looks like we'll only have Holosmith and Scrapper for the forseeable future. I guess this is why they call them Elite specs.

Fixed that for you.

[Eastcorn.5901]

I'm holding into some hope for Holosmith. I've been trying the Thumper+HLA Alchemy/Inventions/Holosmith build and it's been okay in regards to survivability. It's possible we can still be decent fighters after the balance patch, though far less reliant on big bursts.

But after this patch Scrapper will be an amazing team fight support spec, since many other things from other classes are getting nerfed. It's hard to see a future PvP where Scrapper isn't the dominant build.

[Vagrant.7206]

@Eastcorn.5901 said:I'm holding into some hope for Holosmith. I've been trying the Thumper+HLA Alchemy/Inventions/Holosmith build and it's been okay in regards to survivability. It's possible we can still be decent fighters after the balance patch, though far less reliant on big bursts.

But after this patch Scrapper will be an amazing team fight support spec, since many other things from other classes are getting nerfed. It's hard to see a future PvP where Scrapper isn't the dominant build.

Yeah, but I'm still really burned out on scrapper since HoT days. It was possibly one of the most boring specs to play. :-\