Guild Wars 2

Hello, I currently run a full rabid 30/10/0/20/10 grenades/bombs build with traits to apply burn /bleed on crit along with sigil of earth (not sure if earth is the best option though!).

I’ve been noticing that people have been mixing dire and rabid to beef up more survivability, and I was wondering what crit% i should aim for? Rather, what crit% should i not go below? Also, with a dire/rabid gear setup, would I have to avoid the on-crit traits because of the lowered precision?

Thanks!

You can hit up to 5 targets up to 3 times with 1 grenade skill. So in a 1vs1 each grenade skill got a triple chance to generate a crit. So with 33% crit chance you would have 1 crit for each grenade skill used. IMO thats more than enough to trigger on crit effects as soon as the cooldown wears off.

I’m running the same build with dire weapons/armor and rabid trinkets. I’m at 28% crit chance which is enough for me to trigger burn on crit every 10s. I dont use Shrapnel because IMO 15% isnt worth it even with a high crit rate. I also dont use Sigil of Earth.

But I would like to hear other oppinions about Shrapnel.

So I guess it’s for WvW or PvP? ^^

Having run with an engineer for more than a year now i can tell you that having sigil of earth is a solid choice, esspesialy combined with the other bleed traits the engineer has, you’l be able to get to 25 bleed stacks. Shrapnall trait may look weak but its not on crit activated thus its 15% on each attack. So even mobs that cant be critted can get extra bleed. The duration is 12 sec without any condition duration buffs so imagine fighting a boss solo with shrapnall trait and youl still be able to get to 25 bleed stacks, although it will take a constant barage of grenades to achieve this. Just for the fun of it try it on Golem mark II world boss, youl defeat him in a few min doing the event solo

OMG I ever read ‘on crit’ but its ‘on hit’ for Shrapnel. That makes Shrapnel really useful.

I’m still undecided about Sigil of Earth. It’s on a 2s internal cooldown. What happens if it procs on a grenade which hits 5 enemies. Does all 5 enemies get the bleed proc or just one?

teg.1340:

OMG I ever read ‘on crit’ but its ‘on hit’ for Shrapnel. That makes Shrapnel really useful.

I’m still undecided about Sigil of Earth. It’s on a 2s internal cooldown. What happens if it procs on a grenade which hits 5 enemies. Does all 5 enemies get the bleed proc or just one?

just one.

whoops forgot to clarify that my question is mainly for wvw

blutstein.2468:

teg.1340:

OMG I ever read ‘on crit’ but its ‘on hit’ for Shrapnel. That makes Shrapnel really useful.

I’m still undecided about Sigil of Earth. It’s on a 2s internal cooldown. What happens if it procs on a grenade which hits 5 enemies. Does all 5 enemies get the bleed proc or just one?

just one.

Thats what I feared.

Sharpshooter (5 firearms) is only a 33% chance on critical hits to proc a 3 second bleed. In other words, with a 100% crit chance, you’d only get a bleed every 3 hits. With a 33% crit chance, you’ll get a bleed maybe around once per 9 hits. It’s not bad, but don’t plan your build around it. Just think of it as an extra 40-50 damage per second in most builds.

Sigil of earth is a 5 second bleed with a 2-second cooldown. It’s 60% chance on crit, so with grenades and a high crit chance you can stay close to the internal cooldown. However, even if you proc a bleed at exactly every 2 seconds, the most it could add is 2.5 stacks (5 stacks with 100% condi duration). Realistically, it won’t proc at exactly two seconds every time, so you’re likely looking at an extra 1-4 bleed stacks depending on your crit chance and duration.

So they’re definitely not bad, but don’t plan your build around them. If you’re considering lowering your crit and trying different sigil options, on-swap sigils are great for engineers: battle, doom, geomancy, and energy are all decent options, depending on what you’re looking for.

NevirSayDie.6235:

Sharpshooter (5 firearms) is only a 33% chance on critical hits to proc a 3 second bleed. In other words, with a 100% crit chance, you’d only get a bleed every 3 hits. With a 33% crit chance, you’ll get a bleed maybe around once per 9 hits. It’s not bad, but don’t plan your build around it. Just think of it as an extra 40-50 damage per second in most builds.

Sigil of earth is a 5 second bleed with a 2-second cooldown. It’s 60% chance on crit, so with grenades and a high crit chance you can stay close to the internal cooldown. However, even if you proc a bleed at exactly every 2 seconds, the most it could add is 2.5 stacks (5 stacks with 100% condi duration). Realistically, it won’t proc at exactly two seconds every time, so you’re likely looking at an extra 1-4 bleed stacks depending on your crit chance and duration.

So they’re definitely not bad, but don’t plan your build around them. If you’re considering lowering your crit and trying different sigil options, on-swap sigils are great for engineers: battle, doom, geomancy, and energy are all decent options, depending on what you’re looking for.

That was actually one of my concerns – with my full exotic rabid set I’m sitting at around ~46% crit chance, and still being relatively new to the Engineer class, I’m not sure if I could tell if those crit procs from Sharpshooter/Sigil of Earth/Incendiary Powder are making a significant difference, or if they are just making an inefficient overkill in refreshing burns or inefficient bleeding damage for the traits spent. I’m wondering if going full Dire (or maybe even Apothecary) and finding other ways to compensate for the lack of crit and on-crit procs (with something like might stacking, for instance) would produce just as effective of condition pressure and damage while improving survivability ?

lucky.8246:

That was actually one of my concerns – with my full exotic rabid set I’m sitting at around ~46% crit chance, and still being relatively new to the Engineer class, I’m not sure if I could tell if those crit procs from Sharpshooter/Sigil of Earth/Incendiary Powder are making a significant difference, or if they are just making an inefficient overkill in refreshing burns or inefficient bleeding damage for the traits spent. I’m wondering if going full Dire (or maybe even Apothecary) and finding other ways to compensate for the lack of crit and on-crit procs (with something like might stacking, for instance) would produce just as effective of condition pressure and damage while improving survivability ?

Incendiary powder is the exception. It is extremely significant. If you are in a large group, the burn may be wasted, but in small fights it’s very tough to keep burning on a target. Fortunately, you don’t need much precision to proc IP every 10-12 seconds.

I also chose to go the route you suggest. I currently have enough rabid for about 25% crit chance, some dire, and just a little apothecary. I probably wouldn’t use apothecary at all except that I just got applied fortitude (the wvw thing that gives you extra vitality) so I felt like I had all the vitality I needed. It’s very tanky and still puts out great pressure. Just make sure you have mobility in your build—you can’t depend on armor to save you from larger groups.

I swapped nade CD trait for IP after the nerf, and picked up shrapnel.

The bleeds it can stack through nades is pretty amazing.

I have 35% crit without fury at 75% Life i get fury and than i have 55% it is enough.

Running 20/20/0/20/10