Guild Wars 2

SD Engineer is the best fun I’ve had in this game, And I usually run a 24026 so these changes intrigued me :
(Of course keep in my mind that if you haven’t watched the stream you’ll be as blind as a bat, and probably won’t make any sense of what I’m saying)

1. 2 in Explosives: used to go here for Knock-back on turret detonation( this is baseline now THANK GOD) so no explosives anymore

2. 4 in Firearms: used to go here for Improved range (now baseline too)and damage.
So now it’ll probably be More Crit% when <600 range in adept, and rifle trait in master, but I’ve yet to find anything useful in the grandmaster spot

3. 2 in Alchemy: used to go here for Invigorating speed, now I’m completely lost in this trait line and would love some guidance

4. 6 in Tools: now here is the problem, I used to go
(Static discharge)-(Speedy kits)-(Power wrench)
But now I can’t do that, since Power wrench and Static discharge are both adepts! (and i don’t know what to pick for grandmaster either so I hope their “TBD” is worth it!)

Does anyone have any opinions they might have on this situation?
And can someone tell me where the kittens is my Bunker down?

Incendiary ammo would probably be the best grandmaster for an SD build based on the info we have unless your expecting the enemy to have conditions piled on them by someone else. You could probably take adrenal implant to cover for loss of invigorating speed as your master in tools and then just forget about speedy kits. Who knows about the grandmaster, maybe the gadget one will be worth taking? Have to wait and see.

Bunker down is being been moved to inventions and drops medpacks instead of mines so might not be suitable for your SD build anymore.

“Explosive Rocket Belt Thingy” and SD could be fun

The change to bunker down is really sad. In my latest changes to my SD engie build, I’ve been using bunker down to great success. I love watching players down me, only to walk over for a stomp and get blown to the down state themselves. And since I focus so kitten map awareness, I’m often the one who gets saved by my teamates. Its also great extra burst if you use it carefully with overcharged shot. Knocking an enemy into 3 mines along with 2 instant static discharge abilities is crazy burst.

Very sad to lose my build.

Now wait from what I understood Bunker Down would now vary between dropping mines and medpacks. Did I misunderstand?

Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365:

“Explosive Rocket Belt Thingy” and SD could be fun

They should keep that name XD

They said that will possibly keep the mines, and this new grandmaster gives additional med kits — which means that the build idea with bunker down would remain.

Hmm yes, with APT as baseline and power previously obtained from said trait line being added to base and amulet leaves a notion of mawr power! No need to trait explosive… I can’t wait!

Conncept.7638:

Now wait from what I understood Bunker Down would now vary between dropping mines and medpacks. Did I misunderstand?

They said they might make it drop both (presumably at the same time).

Static Discharge will actually be in a better place after these changes. It goes from 2/6/0/0/6 or similar to 0/6/0/6/6, with the only thing it loses being bomb on dodge, but it gains vigor (speedy kit refinement + invigorating speed), backpack regenerator, and the HGH + Fast Acting Elixirs combo, which lowers your elixir s recharge and gives some extra might. If I’m not mistaken, Potent Elixirs may be included in that combo, giving us extra time invulnerable and longer stealth as well. In tools you would take SD-Speedy Kit Refinement-409 (If potent elixirs isn’t in the HGH+FAE combo it’ll be here, and the extra condi remove on elixir s can’t hurt) unless the TBD is any good.

Not being able to take Power Wrench does suck, but you get the survivability from backpack regenerator and all the fun stuff in alchemy to make up for it. Not entirely sure what they’ve done with some of the damage modifiers, but unless they’ve scrapped most of them the damage should be similar or higher to what we have now.

I’ll probably run a 66006 grenades/tool kit/rifle turret SD build now that we can get SD and Speedy Kits without giving up any explosives or firearms traits. So if anything SD builds will be more common and more powerful, especially if the mortar kit is implemented well.

Sins.4782:

Static Discharge will actually be in a better place after these changes. It goes from 2/6/0/0/6 or similar to 0/6/0/6/6, with the only thing it loses being bomb on dodge, but it gains vigor (speedy kit refinement + invigorating speed), backpack regenerator, and the HGH + Fast Acting Elixirs combo, which lowers your elixir s recharge and gives some extra might. If I’m not mistaken, Potent Elixirs may be included in that combo, giving us extra time invulnerable and longer stealth as well. In tools you would take SD-Speedy Kit Refinement-409 (If potent elixirs isn’t in the HGH+FAE combo it’ll be here, and the extra condi remove on elixir s can’t hurt) unless the TBD is any good.

Not being able to take Power Wrench does suck, but you get the survivability from backpack regenerator and all the fun stuff in alchemy to make up for it. Not entirely sure what they’ve done with some of the damage modifiers, but unless they’ve scrapped most of them the damage should be similar or higher to what we have now.

yeah. I run 0/6/0/4/4 largely. my spvp and my pve builds are slightly different.

Main buff will be the stat change. 0 explosives means I am missing that 300 power currently.

409 being tools GM confuses me. I don’t really like this. as its now higher teir. and honestly, kills most of my reason for even going alch at all.
Alch line was at times over crowded. now Tools seems over crowded.

I’ll probably end up 6/6/0/0/6 or something.

Static discharge is obvious. (powerwrench is honestly not that great.)
Speedykits.
And 409 grandmaster. (weird for an elixir defensive trait here..)

Modified ammo is pretty good. surprised no love for it mentioned.
Granted, not sure post HoT. where is my sitting duck?
Vul, immobililze, and bleed are 3 easy/automatic conditions with rifle.
Nevermind, party conditions, or gadget, or bundle conditions, or zomg, pistol SD?! inHoT.

Tried to love HGH. but elixir cast times are just too long. They need to be faster. too much dps loss drinking them all the time.

Best build I can think of for burst engineer (not static discharge) would be a 6/6/0/0/6 with GK, Elixir S, TK, using modified ammunition for GM trait in firearms..

Sorry, haven’t read all the posts so I don’t know all the suggestions others made. Also, I haven’t seen the stream footage, so I might be misinformed.

In any case, I’ve commonly used adrenal implant in the tools line for the passive endurance regeneration instead of relying on invigorating speed. This always allowed me to move the 2 points from alchemy into firearms in order to take sitting duck, which would add an additional 5% damage to burst combos since immobilization is commonplace with net shot. The cripple it applies is just icing on the cake, helping to prevent them from removing the vuln and immob, as well as impairing their movement for a bit if they get away from the initial burst.

In any case, incendiary powder is another common choice as you would get some free burning on there.

It’ll depend on all the trait changes though. Once I get around to reading them, maybe I’d have a better suggestion (of course they’re still WIP).

Ovalkvadratcylinder.9365:

“Explosive Rocket Belt Thingy” and SD could be fun

Especially if “Explosive Rocket Belt Thingy” means Rocket turret’s toolbelt skill, which would mean a free SD every time it procs.

I’m thinking the new SD build would be Firearms and Tools, picking up crit chance, rifle trait, and IP from Firearms, and Static Distcharge, Speedy Kits and the TBD from Tools. 3rd spec would probably be Explosives (RBT, extra damage to vuln targets, and your choice of GM trait, might swap firearms crit chance to precise sights for extra vuln) but with Accelerant-packed turrets becoming baseline and IP moving to Firearms, you could pick up Alchemy to get Invigorating speed or the new Inventions for survivability.

Having to choose between SD and Power Wrench sucks…

Make power wrench or static discharge a grandmaster with dmg boost, there were no usefull grandmaster traits in tools anyway… :P

What !!! Armor mods is so nice to have …..

+1 armour mods is useful for glassy builds… Any build that skips out on invigorating speed can make great use of adrenal implant! Pish and nonsense!

Agree, they are all right. but in my eyes not worth taking over power wrench, speedy kits and obvious not over static discharge in a static discharge build…^^

I have a very fun SD build (not used it for a while) that has a strong focus on cc that uses neither speedykits nor invigorating spee.

It’s a conquest only kinda build, I don’t think the mobility is quite up to wvw but for point to point roaming, it’s fine.

0/4/4/0/6

Zerker,
hair trigger, rifle mod
Energizer/stabilised armour, power shoes
Static discharge, power wrench, adrenal implant

Using TK, slick shoes and personal battering ram.

Might break it out tonight… So good for cc locking and now, if someone pops a load of stab stacks… Out come the slick shoes :-D

I really hope they fix SD with the new traits. Right now it’s just too bugged to be used properly.

Xyonon.3987:

I really hope they fix SD with the new traits. Right now it’s just too bugged to be used properly.

huh?

you should check on how static discharge right now REALLY works :> it’s fascinating

Dont get it .. ?

or you could not be so mysterious?
I’ll admit, I just came back to the game a few months ago now. and have not done anywhere near the level of playtesting, and number crunching I used to…

But the only SD bug I’ve noticed is the classic, “untargeted skills fire SD off into the ground”. so it sucks with “throw elixer” and the like.
Targeted skills like goggles, surprise shot, throw wrench, rocket kick, battering ram, etc it works perfectly fine for, it DOES target and track properly. (even out ranges rifle at 1200)

Sry I thought you’ll just look for yourself cuz it was late and I was tired ^.^ Wasnt my intention to “be mysterious” or something. The point is, the damage and everything is weird, here’s what I got for you:

Static Discharge – how it really works:

Xyonon.3987:

Oh now I get it! At least ONE part of it. It’s true that the instant cast skills deal half damage, but the reason why they didn’t on pupets is, because my char® automaticly stats firing with his rifle – means he’s doing somthing with cast time. If I equip a shield only, or simply disable the chain auto atack feature for the rifle, he won’t be able to attack and therefore does the weaker version of SD. So it seems a bit cross-bugged with the auto attack.

But now the question is, when will the normally strong static discharges become weak ones. MORE TESTINGS REQUIRED! But first my pizza – yummi ^.^ !

---

Final Edit:
I think I got it now. There are 2 rules:

• SD will deal high damage while using toolbelt skills with a cast time, SD will deal reduced damage while using toolbelt skills without a cast time, aka instant skills (also no legendary animation).
• While performing an auto attack, during the cast time, rule one is reversed. So instant skills = high damage and cast time skills = reduced damage.

greez Ziggy

If I made a mistake, please let me know!

Xyonon.3987:

Btw there is another funfact affecting the static discharge. But this takes us back to the introduction of ascended gear.

Weapon damage doesn’t affect kit damage. That’s why ANet buffed the kit dmg by 5% if you are wearing an ascended or legendary weapon. What the connection is to static discharge? Well there is a hidden weapon damage while using a kit, wich is exotic like. I beleve it is that way because (now it comes) static discharge deals less damage while using a kit than while using an ascended+ weapon. So if you want stronger discharges, stay on rifle lol!

I really hate this trait by now

Got it? Better don’t use it, it’s a very very evil trait! Any questions, just ask

greez Ziggy =^._.^=

(edit: tested this about 1-2 months ago)

Hmm, I was pretty bummed out about them putting Power Wrench and SD as competitors. After reading this and assuming they don’t fix it Rifle SD may not use Tool Kit anyway…

So to clarify, SD does highest damage with Ascended Weapon + weapon auto attack + instacast toolbelt?

SD did always do less damage when using kits. yes its follows the normal damage formula with weapon damage.
Damage done = (Weapon strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)

Kits averaged 920 weapon damage iirc, back then. this was LESS then an exotic pistol at 950 average, and rifle at 1096 average.
SD always did very noticeably more damage with rifle equipped then kits.

wasn’t aware of the 5% buff with ascended/legendary.
Were they buffed for both exotic and ascended?

@Bloodgruve:

It doesn’t matter what toolbelt skills you use. You can get the strong attack by either using the rifle wich reverts the rule or the grenade kit wich has no AA and will not revert the rule. So it’s just about swapping kits before using any SD skills. But I recommend to use skills with a target like rifle turret so the SD will aim aswell, otherwise you have to stay melee or face the target with your camera and hit them with an actual skillshot.

To clarify, yes, SD does highest damage with an ascended rifle + facing enemy so aa starts or is chaining while using a insta hit (rifle turret) toolbelt. When you have rifle, yet aa chain disabled, means you’re not doing an AA, then the whole thing is reverted again. I hope you get it, if not, ask again

@Casia:

Afaik kits are based on average damage of exotic weapons, so aslong as you don’t have an ascended weapon, it won’t matter if you use SD with your rifu, your wifu or your kits :> maybe I’m wrong here, never checked the power of kits so …

no they only buffed kits while using ascended gear by 5%.

Xyonon.3987:

@Bloodgruve:

To clarify, yes, SD does highest damage with an ascended rifle + facing enemy so aa starts or is chaining while using a insta hit (rifle turret) toolbelt. When you have rifle, yet aa chain disabled, means you’re not doing an AA, then the whole thing is reverted again. I hope you get it, if not, ask again

Got it, great info, TYVM.

checking the “strong attack”, “weak attack” thing now.
it is odd… I run throw wrench, surprise shot, and battering ram all at once.

running with rifle and auto autoattack. Surprise shot IS consistently doing double the damage with static discharge then throw wrench or battering ram.
With auto attack disabled, inconsistent.

Static discharge is supposed to be 135 base .5 coeff.
hip shot is 254 skill base .65 coeff.

when my discharge does 605 vs a mordem wolf, and hipshot does 731.
I can tell you right away, the “strong” SD is dealing twice as much damage as it supposed to.
The “Weak” SD is the correct value.

Careful – damage numbers at the traits sometimes are very wrong. Dunno what exactly the trait tooltips dont consider.