But if your goal is to be a cleric engineer – a true healing engineer – what we’re getting is a step in that direction. If your goal is to stand toe to toe in the boss’s face and help your party while blowing up the enemy, that looks like it will be possible as well. The key, if the traits they have stay (and they said engi is the farthest from being polished), will be cycling blast finishers with your (and your party’s – very important) combo fields. Shield 4, big ol bomb, dodge rolls, your heal, overcharging turrets, detonate mine, flame blast, acid bomb, supply crate – you have a lot of choices (again, with dodge rolls and your actual heals probably being the primary source). The great thing is most of the kits we have that have blast finishers also have the ability to drop combo fields (including the bomb kit).
It will probably take a little more thought than blindly dropping bombs at your feet, but it will also, most likely be rewarded with more powerful and consistent heals.
Im not saying this is how it will absolutely be (it’s too early to do that) – Im saying the crazy exploding healing cleric frontline dungoneer should be just as viable (more so, most likely) than it is now. It may not look EXACTLY the same – it sounds like it will be even more fun.
But it won’t be a bomber crazy exploding healing cleric frontline dungeoneer, it will be a turret/shield crazy exploding healing cleric frontline dungeoneer, a or several bunker sustain builds may be maintained, but the manic style of playing it unique to the bomb kit will be gone.
What we will have in its place is either turretsplosion or kit cycling builds which will take advantage of the replacement trait far better than the bomb kit, adding more of the same to the class, more rote cycling through cooldowns, which I fail to see as being any better than bomb spam in any way, shape, or form.
Elixir infused bombs on the other hand was something truly unique and interesting and most of all, incredibly fun, if only the developers had ever given it some love so that players would even try it out. But completely sustainless bombs are just too risky with too little reward, especially when you can do the exact same thing with them at range with the grenade kit, and soon to be the ‘rocket’ kit.
And yes it was spammy, some people like that, like I did. However, you cannot have the build played with how you describe it, because unskilled and blindly spamming could not be farther from the truth. It is consistent use of skills with incredibly precise positioning and evasion that has to be maintained through all enemy control, debuffing, and significantly superior damage optimally within range of both your opponents and your enemies. If you are not spamming in range of both enemies and allies, are controlled or debufffed or downed, your allies aren’t getting heals, they aren’t getting DPS amp through might and vulnerability, and the enemy has an advantage in repositioning and resetting because of the control you aren’t contributing. And remember, all of that, at point blank range, with a fuse delay on all your abilities.
I run this build with double pistols (a huge sacrifice on a power build) because double glue fields is amazing, slick shoes, 60600, and clerics gear. Then I would alternate between Elixir C+Elixir H+fast acting elixirs, utility goggles+speedy gadgets, or most frequently sitting duck and a net turret or sitting duck and Elixir C. With any of those setups, you generally have one or less response to any amount of offense that the enemy could throw at you. This isn’t the only support build I’ve tried, and I have to be far more observant and more responsive than any support build I know of, just to maintain my stream of buffs, debuffs, DPS, and healing. Spammy does not inherently mean it is used blindly or is skill less, it is a particular play style that can be good or bad, skilled or unskilled, just like any other.
