Guild Wars 2

http://en.gw2codex.com/build/2781-explosive-buster-maximum-damage

Would that be a viable build or not anymore after the nerf?

Personally I generally run with a bombs build and I need a lot more toughness than that to survive up close with around 17k hp…maybe you can make it work though:)

I don’t get why people think grenades are bad. I kitten damage, switch to my pistols, then switch back. The point is, just don’t stay on the kit if you can do something else too!

That build is great. Build it around condition damage and constantly switch between your kits. I’d take P/P or P/S instead. Works better with the condition damage. You can take out svanir and the chieftan pretty easy this way with the extra ranged abilities. It’s overall just more utility than the rifle.

Personally I don’t like grenades because they have such a spread that they don’t necessarily all hit your target, or at least it seems that way to me.

Underwater they rock socks though.

Personally I adore a Pistols / Grenades / Bombs build with Condi-Dmg in tPvP / hot-join.

Grenades are and always have been useless without Grenadier. Requiring thirty points into a traitline to switch in and out of a kit seems a bit steep and if you want to use pistol you have to invest heavily into Firearms as well, leaving you with little to spend on survival.

Going glass cannon usually isn’t a good idea on Engineer, the damage just isn’t there even going all out.

Grenadier is required, I’d agree there. What do you think in Firearms though is required to use a Pistol? I only have 10 points in Firearms myself.

Firearms isn’t ‘required’ for p/s or p/p, but the pre/cond bonuses are great and Coated Bullets is pretty much a game changer that turns your pistol into a mini aoe machine.

Manieri.2679:

http://en.gw2codex.com/build/2781-explosive-buster-maximum-damage

Would that be a viable build or not anymore after the nerf?

The build could be better, one of the thing I would change would be either speedy kits or infused precision since it useless to have both when you can perma-swift with either trait (speedy kit for sure.) Another thing is that is not focused on one kit, you may want to later change it since there are many good traits that would make either kit really good for both support and damage.
In terms of grenades, I find it a waste in using it if you don’t have the shrapnel trait since the #2 skill would deal the biggest damage after grenade barrage. Since the nerf, in order to make grenades builds viable, a hybrid of both power and condition damage is the way to go. ( or even berserker with a bit of condition damage)
Kit attunement is good but works at close/melee range.
For me, the build could do a lot of work in terms of synergy but it really depends on how you play, you may enjoy it =D.
No two engineers are the same XD.

rizzo.1079:

Firearms isn’t ‘required’ for p/s or p/p, but the pre/cond bonuses are great and Coated Bullets is pretty much a game changer that turns your pistol into a mini aoe machine.

I prefer a ConDmg/Pow/Vit spread so the Precision isn’t as great, but I’ll admit the ConDmg is always missed. I’ve never personally liked Coated Bullets since I have all the AoE I need anyway with Bombs/Grenades, and after using it I wasn’t really impressed either. I just don’t see these 20 extra points as required, heck I’m not even entirely certain the 10 points are but I like the Pistol CD reduction. The freedom of having an extra 30 points compared to 10 points can give you a lot of defensive flexibility where as 20 points in firearms doesn’t really offer any (at least in my view) game changing traits.

Again though, totally agree that Grenadier is just flat out mandatory and that is sometimes problematic. That trait line in general offers really good things though for Bombs/Grenades so it’s something I’d probably do regardless of Grenadier. Not to mention the +30% condition duration doesn’t make it too hard to get to +50% condition duration.

http://www.intothemists.com/calc/?build=-VRR;2Z-Vg0c-FQFx0;9;4T9-T-27A5;319A;1SN1;0o0-hoHAhoHA1Fp

There’s what I tend to run. The little poke of Might stacking in it is pretty recent. I used to run Geomancy Sigil and Protection Injection previously for better point domination and anti-burst, but I find incredibly increased damage output valuable in the killing of Bunker Guardians and Eles. Build is also flexible with the 20% cooldown reduction traits, but I like the ability to never have to touch the 1 key and use purely cooldown related skills. It lacks stun-breaks and perma-swiftness though, which may bug some. Stun-breaks aren’t needed as much with the health pool and numerous blinds, but the perma-swiftness is something I tend to miss. The ability to win duels in a decent time frame against bunker builds though is worth the trade off in my opinion.