Guild Wars 2

I used to think that our kits limited us by taking away a utility spot. Clearly my glass was half-empty. I’ve changed my perspective.

I decided to put together a 4 kit build, as I believe that the real utility of the class comes from the individual skills hidden in each kit. I also wanted to play around with the new kit refinement.

I had been using FT and EG with great success coupled with Elixir S. I was motivated to go 4 kit because I’ve really missed the tool kit. Losing Elixir S on my utility bar may be tough, but the build takes auto Elixir S at 25%, and tool kit’s gear shield will hopefully bridge the gap.

I would appreciate any input you may have about the build.

Just so you have a better understanding of my philosophy/play-style, I like durable front-line tanky builds that are survivable and also have the ability to do moderate damage, as well as provide group support.

As such I like to shoot for around 3k attack 3k armor 40% crit (with food buffs pre-fury). I use soldier’s armor (p/v/t) with 6/6 rune of the centaur. I also use p/v/t trinkets, with exquisite emerald orbs (prec/power/toughness). My weapons (pistol shield) are knight’s (toughness/power/precision). I am open to suggestions on sigils. I go with +5% crit and +5% damage.

The four kits used are Med kit, Elixir Gun, Tool Kit, Flame Thrower

Elite: Supply Drop.

Here is the build:

0/30/0/20/20

30: V, VIII, XI
20: IV, VII
20: IV, VIII

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-VRw;2sPku0l6sTFx0;9;5T-JJ;147A;136-37-4N;46Rk06Rk06gL

I usually put 20 into inventions for more toughness and to trait my shield. I shifted them into tools for tool kit cool down, and tool belt reduction. I may go back to the 20 in inventions though if I feel the loss of durability is significant. The 20 I usually put into inventions are: V, and VII

Thoughts?

Kit Refinement is crap for multikit builds now, so I’d go with Speedy Kits instead, and take something better than Centaur runes. Along with that, if it doesn’t hurt your damage overly much, Invigorating Speed would be good to bring instead of Deadly Mixture.

I know they aren’t the best, but I can’t live without the perma-swiftness from Centaur runes.

As for kit refinement, I can see some utility from it.

i.e., switch to Elixir gun, trigger glue trail (Activates a Glue Trail that follows the player for a short time. Enemies that step in the glue are briefly immobilized) and then hit acid bomb leaving a trail of glue behind you.

I try to stay in FT as long as possible, and switch to my other kits for utility, so the ten second cooldown although an issue, will be more predictable.

When switching from FT after 10 seconds I will know exactly what utility skill will be of most use depending on opponent.

I’m not saying you’re wrong…

I’m just saying I want to check it out for myself.

And thanks for your feedback!

Not sure if you were referring to KR or just the centaur runes, but the KR cooldown is 20s not 10s.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Not sure if you were referring to KR or just the centaur runes, but the KR cooldown is 20s not 10s.

I’m not sure if I understand the mechanic to be honest.

Is it a 20 second global cooldown on each kit?

I was under the (mis)impression that in addition to the 20 second individual kit cooldown, that there was a 10 second global cooldown.

How does it work?

Ok…

Just read this:

Creating these effects does not trigger the cooldowns of the associated skills.
All kit skills are on a static global recharge (20 seconds).

I’ll still try it out, but you appear to be correct it doesn’t look to be worth the investment.

The global cooldown is a killer.

This has got to be changed.

MrSilver.5269:

The global cooldown is a killer.

This has got to be changed.

Yeah, that’s basically the conclusion the entire Engineer section has come to.

If it were kit specific I would be fine with it.

I still get some use out of KR in my 3-4 kit build (depending on situation, PvE only), since I spend most of fights in Grenade Kit, I have some control over what I trigger when I switch to something else. I can’t swear that what I am doing is optimum, though, and I could probably count on the fingers of both hands the number of times I’ve managed to get a specific effect when I needed it. That is a L2 kitten ue for me, though, I can also count on the fingers of both hands the number of times I’ve managed to, say, use the Shield missile reflect at just the right time to reflect a missile. . .

this is a build I played with for the most part till recently.

You wonder about 20 points in inventions versus 20 points in Tools now, regarding survivability.
The answer is very simple: Med Kit!
15 points in Inventions resets your healing skill, great with elixir or turret… useless with Med Kit. Med kit can be swapped to always, and the ‘reset’ of this trait does nothing for that.
The big heal of med kit is on the tool belt… and what gets reset by 15 points in Tools? Exactly: tool belt skills!
So when using med kit you are far better with those points in Tools than in Inventions.
I like the shield trait too… but a reset on your heal is far more important.

You are now using one of the last versatile builds we have left.
EG is pretty good in support, you have a traited 16 sec light field that removes a condition upon use (super elixir) as well as the 15 sec med kit antidote.
EG #4 is a great escape too that hurts quite abit if they stay in it.
Little tip: Tool Kit #2 for cripple field, swap to EG #4 and get out of there…

Other small tip (most know this of course): Flamethrower #5 is usable when stunned.
This is what you do when stunned: swap to FT and hit #5 for a blind.
Not much, but at least one hit less.

Use a ‘on swap’ sigil with this. I use Hydromancy for chill with this build.
I also use Grenth runes, so when stunned: swap to Med Kit too and chill them (you get both procs since this counts as both a weapon swap, and a using heal skill…).

use FT tool belt (the burn 3 times) and than throw wrench: crippled AND burning for double duration since the wrench hits twice…

This build is good for a bit of everything, but it’s not your best 1v1 killer.
But you can take it to WvW, dungeons, questing,… it’s good for almost anything, but never the best for it.

I would get speedy kits now that Kit refinement is unreliable With 4 kits you’ll NEVER know what proc you’re getting. In this build you swap kits on seconds, not on 20 second intervals.

As for gear: anything goes… I used it with a lot of PTV gear, but you can easily go for more crit.
FT likes crit… but don’t forget you don’t have the trait ‘incendiary powder’ for burn on crit. This trait is very good when using the FT to it’s fullest, but not available in this build.

If you lack ranged: trait coated bullets, if you’re in the midst of things: use juggernaut.

Learn to think across kits, see what cooldowns are simular and usefull if combined.

If this build is good for tpvp will depend entirely on your skills I’m afraid.
It’s not an optimal pvp build, mostly because it’s so versatile that it lacks real punch.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Kit Refinement is crap for multikit builds now, so I’d go with Speedy Kits instead, and take something better than Centaur runes. Along with that, if it doesn’t hurt your damage overly much, Invigorating Speed would be good to bring instead of Deadly Mixture.

No way, deadly mixture is 15% damage increase for EG and FT, that like equivalent to 12 stacks of might. For FT/EG, it’s a no brainer to get deadly mixture since I am guessing that would be your main attack kit.
But I agree with kit refinement, the new patch destroyed it for multi-kit users (sobs), it just be RNG and not the good kind. The only KR worth using for is medkit and bombkit. Speedy kit is also no-brainer for perma-swiftness.

@MrSilver, I’ve been running a similar build in PvE and it’s lots of fun.

It allows you to dynamically chain a lot of different abilities and can generate a lot of combos. When soloing PvE with four kits I generally run Bomb Kit (with FT and EG) rather than Tool Kit for the extra AoE and combo fields (also Big ol Bomb is superior to Throw Wrench as a tool belt skill). In parties I prefer Bomb Kit over Tool Kit due to the support potential of all those extra combos.

I tried hard to get the new Kit Refinement to work for me, but unless I stayed in one kit for a long time (which is completely counter to the purpose of this build) the KR procs every 20s were just too random to be much use. Swap for Speedy Kits for perma-swiftness, which really complements the dynamic mid-range play of this build.

Precise Sights is useful for the extra damage. However, for better durability swap to Infused Precision which synergizes perfectly with Speedy Kits in this build to give you prema-vigor.

Switching between Tool Kit and Bomb Kit is easy with this build. Just hot-swap Power Wrench for Static Discharge (extra damage) or Packaged Stimulants (extra healing etc on the run) when running with the Bomb Kit.

On the down side, it’s not so good in WvW (or presumably PvP) as it’s prone to stun and is weak on condition removal (only Super Elixir and projectile combos off that when you’re close enough to the target).

Zenguy.6421:

Just hot-swap Power Wrench for Static Discharge (extra damage) or Packaged Stimulants (extra healing etc on the run) when running with the Bomb Kit.

Static Discharge won’t be much use since all 4 of his toolbelt skills are non-targeted at that point, and I don’t really see how Packaged Stimulants would be much help, if anything it makes it more annoying to heal yourself, which leaves, uh….. Kit Refinement lol.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Zenguy.6421:

Just hot-swap Power Wrench for Static Discharge (extra damage) or Packaged Stimulants (extra healing etc on the run) when running with the Bomb Kit.

Static Discharge won’t be much use since all 4 of his toolbelt skills are non-targeted at that point, and I don’t really see how Packaged Stimulants would be much help, if anything it makes it more annoying to heal yourself, which leaves, uh….. Kit Refinement lol.

Even non targeted Static DIscharges can hit, if you’re at point blank. Not reliably, but… I’d still take it over KR. Even with zero added power, that’s something like 170 damage per bounce, more if it crits.

Not sure how Stimulants equates to extra healing, though.

The FT and EG are largely Power based weapons — not condition based. And so too is the Took Kit.

I run with the same three, however, I have Berserker gear with Melandru Runes and I trait:

30
10
0
0
30

My Crit Chance isn’t as high as it could be (around 30%) but my Crit Damage is around 80%. The beauty of the EG and FT is that they present many, many opportunities to Crit – so you don’t need as high of a Crit Chance. With high Power and high Crit Damage the Acid Bomb, Flame Jet and Flame Blast can put up impressive numbers. Even the Tranq and Elixer F can do good damage.

Halcyon.7352:

Static Discharge won’t be much use since all 4 of his toolbelt skills are non-targeted at that point, and I don’t really see how Packaged Stimulants would be much help, if anything it makes it more annoying to heal yourself, which leaves, uh….. Kit Refinement lol.

The following only applies if temporarily running Bomb Kit instead of Tool Kit in this build. The result isn’t optimal, but it does provide a quick hot-swap 4-kit alternative for those situations where Tool Kit isn’t ideal.

When running Bomb Kit instead of Tool Kit, the 20pt Power Wrench trait is useless. Potential hot-swap alternatives:

• Static Discharge: SD much better with targeted toolbelt skills, but will still hit if you make sure you’re facing an enemy when you trigger a non-targeted toolbelt skills.
• Packaged Stimulants: Handy for group support. In extreme cases (running from a fight, low on health and losing more from conditions, toolbelt heals and Super Elixir are on CD) it can ensure you’ll pick up your own med kit drops (there’s nothing I hate more than being downed and looking back looking at a trail of antidote and bandages I dropped but couldn’t get to).
• Kit Refinement: In this build KR randomly generates one of four minor utility effects every 20s. Expect it to produce something vaguely useful maybe once/minute if you’re lucky.
• Leg Mods: if it stacks with Speedy Kits (does it?) it will give an extra 10% movement rate while in Med Kit and Bomb Kit.