A question about flamethrower engi
flamethrower does not shine for dps damage. Nades and bombs with explosive are much better. In my opinion FT is better in a condition setup. You will use FT for its toolbet skill, for its utilities but not for dps damage imho.
ok people have asked for addtitional details so here is what i am currently running with commander stats as a frontline wvw build, which is working but doesn’t feel optimized. i didn’t provide it before because if i change stats i will probally change build. also i have 20+ characters this one is a flamethrower engi. i have other engis using other things. so keep suggestions to flamethrower engi.
SKILLS: elixer h(heal) elixer b(swiftness for keeping up with zerg+boons) Elixer u(fury/quickness/might) FT kit. Supply crate(elite)
Build(1 is top trait 3 is bottom) Firearms:2/1/1 alchemy:2/3/1 Scrapper:3/3/1
build and skills might change if trailblazer is used.
While FT does benefit from burn uptime I wouldn’t spec Condi if I were going to be camping it, which I take it you are because of Juggernaut.
What about it makes it feel not optimized?
I’m also developing a new stat-configuration and experimenting with different setups. The one I use now, completely relies on soldier stats, which is very heavy but damage is a bit low. Not as low as with my old cleric setup, but I think I can tickle out a little more without sacrificing too much of my tank-status.
Quite curious about the commander-stats, I did a little test run with boon-duration extensions, to see what would make sense and what not. The results were quite easy:
+ 10% boonduration grants +1 permanent Mightstack (if juggernaut and mass momentum combined). Technically it is +20 % = 2 Mightstacks. If you go for + 10% you get jumping numbers, but the average is +1 stack.
Keeping in mind that 15 Concentration equals +1 % Boonduration and the result from above, only setups with 150, 300, 450 … Concentration really make sense (imho).
Next I experimented with setups, to create 150 and 300 Concentration only, with as less point lost as possible. If I replace only the weapons and my armor, except the boots with commander stats, I end up at 303 Concentration. That would be only 3 stat points wasted.
Going on full commander stats means a score of 633 Concentration, 40% Boonduration and +2 … which help not much, if I do not have other boon-duration sources. So to get the best result, I would pick everything but the backpiece. This solution grants you the 40% Boonduration, and only a loss of 6 wasted points.
For me it is the first setup with only +20%, as I use my special food which gives me another 20% ^^. That will be +4 might-stacks, + 30% crit rate and still more than plenty of HP and toughness. And about 1/5 of the time I have 2 stability stacks instead of one. That is not much, but better than nothing.
Honestly I think the secret lies within stat combinations, not full sets of one type.
Note: All tests done with ascended gear.
Note 2: If you stick to the flamethrower, I would suggest fire arms 3/3/1. This will increase you crit rate with the kit by 10% and grants you more fury over time = more crits ^^.
dulfy-effect: Knowledge is power. But without fame, you are just a freak.
(edited by HnRkLnXqZ.1870)
While FT does benefit from burn uptime I wouldn’t spec Condi if I were going to be camping it, which I take it you are because of Juggernaut.
What about it makes it feel not optimized?
it’s hard to explain, but I guess I feel like i’m tanking damage fine but everyone else is getting the downs on players and then i’m kinda going through and turning the downed to dead. rather then scoring kills myself. my power damage is hard to measure, I have other characters scoring 11k individual hits on commander gear. but I have seen a 300k damage reading on a tower lord, but…it’s a flamethrower total overtime. when I can get it to say dps for one strike it’s 2-5k which seems abysmally low for 25 stacks of might and 15 or so stacks of vulnerability on the opponent. which is why I was asking about trailblazer. my trailblazer reaper manages 25k per tick bleeds. if I could even get 11k burn ticks it might be something. cnd damage isn’t soaked by toughness, even if skills can clear stacks, stacks can be applied again easily enough with the ft. but if I can’t get it that high because of a class damage difference then giving out boons to the frontline/tanking and helping break enemy zerg flow may have to be enough.