Guild Wars 2

The rework to Bunker Down has been interesting, dropping health packs on critical hits along with mines (on a two second cool down). In theory, this was supposed to make Bunker Down a more desirable trait while (presumably) also providing an alternative to the now-extinct Elixir Infused Bombs.

I have noticed a few issues with getting the most out of this trait, though, the main being the fact that the health packs and mines spawn at awkward locations (the pack a few units in front of your character and the mine a few units behind). This can make it difficult to actually (a) reach the health kit and (b) pull an attacker into the mine. The reason for this is rather obvious: the majority of the time, your enemy will be in front of you and, if you are being pressured, backing up or strafing are often necessary. The result is that you will often miss collecting the health pack and the enemy will simply avoid the mine (which seems to have a rather small triggering radius anyway).

Further complicating this issue is the fact that in hectic situations (or if you are using a weapon like the flamethrower that can make it difficult to see in front and beneath you), it is hard to tell where the pack and mine are anyway. This makes them all the more difficult to use effectively.

Now, the point of the rework of adding the health pack was to make Bunker Down a more defensively-oriented trait; one that can support the party even (although, arguably, E-I Bombs also achieved this with a lower heal-per-bomb and could be shared by the party rather than solely consumed by one player). The problem is that the awkward placement of health packs and low visibility make them less viable as recovery resources and less helpful to the player spawning them.

Does anyone else share this concern regarding the trait, or any other thoughts on Bunker Down? Have you found some way of optimizing its effect?

I think You slightly missed the point of new Bunker down. As much as I loved the Elixir Infused Bombs it had certain flaw – it could dish out just that much heal as it could – It was a decent amount, large even. But it could not have been strategically used.

You could spam the bombs, and hope you can outheal the damage – and the tougher, the bigger and the meaner the opponent the more seldom he swinged his massive sword or what not or any other special attack and all you could do is hope that you can heal the damage done until the next swing because you could not save the surplus of heals.

The new Bunker Down does exactly that – allows You to decide when to cash in the healing chips. It is also extremly kiter friendly – because of that frontal spawn. In previous game build You had to either invest in trait upscaling the bombs radius and run forward or run sideways hoping You won’t get swiftness and leave the effective range of heals. Right now you can kick in mecha-legs and enjoy the kiting on full speed ahead.

For full healing breakdown check my topic (link in my signature)

I don’t see why anyone would use Inventions in PvE.

In PvP, free health packs and mines is better than any other GM option. If you want to play bunker/support, especially in WvW, run Medical Dispersion Field.

I have played alot of wvw zerging since the patch and I really feel you OP. The position of the medpac is quite off, it forces you forward, and strifing back and forth is alot slower than strifing to the left and right.
Another problem I have with this is that when you’re at a ledge shooting down at enemies, the medpac will spawn in the middle of the air where noone can reach them.

I don’t necessarily agree with your point on placement, in as much as I’m not sure where I would rather have it, however, I do agree that they can be a little tough to find on the floor. Maybe if they were white with a red symbol or a slight glow? God knows ANet likes to have alot of glowing stuff in the game ;-)