Guild Wars 2

Edit: After several of your posts I decided to try a weapon kit build that involved a lot of kit swapping and it proved to be quite powerful. It would seem kits on their own are useless but if you take what you need from a kit when you need it and switch to whatever you need afterwards it can be quite powerful. Thanks for all the feedback everyone!

The only truly useful kit is the grenade kit and its not even a very exciting kit… Then again none of the kits are very exciting…

Useless kits:

The flamethrower has absolutely no idea what it want’s to be. Its first ability is damage, its second ability is complete garbage and will almost never be used right in a practical situation, the third ability is crowd control, the fourth ability is support, and the fifth ability is damage mitigation… Completely scattered kit that doesn’t flow well together AT ALL. (see my thread on the flamethrower here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Making-the-Engineer-flamethrower-more-interesting-and-useful/first#post279712)

The Bomb Kit is pretty much just a bunch of other engineer abilities in bomb form… The kit in itself is a neat idea but its not very fun and again it will never be practical unless you’re kiting a melee mob by yourself… its useless especially in comparison to the grenade kit otherwise.

The Tool Kit is an absolutely useless kit that I will never use.

Semi-useful kit:

The Elixer Gun The idea is nice however it really doesn’t support very well… This goes for most support builds in this game… You can heal but your heals are barely felt by your party and the cooldown is too long to actually be used as a heal… the condition removal is nice, however the bouncing cripple + speed really doesn’t feel practical at all unless you’re only using it for the cripple. It’s not like you can target an ally and just launch the speed directly to them. The acid leap is kinda nice but its not even a support ability and it rarely ever gets used since you’re supposed to be in the back anyway.

All of the kits are pretty poorly designed and the grenade kit outshines everything the engineer has… Which is kind of sad considering the grenade kit isn’t very exciting or as fun to use as it is frustrating.

I agree with the tool and flamethrower kits.

Disagree with elixir gun and bombs. They have their niches and uses.

Bombs are in a fairly good place I think.

Elixir Gun is ok. It’s role really seems to be group condition removal.

There are many FT builds. I use it time to time but I am not a big fan of it, but there are those that do use it fairly well.

Tool kit is okay. It might need a few small tweaks but the autoattack change has a bigger effect for it than other kits so give it some time.

The issues with the other kits is not that they are super horrible but that grenade with the grenadier trait is just a bit over the top imo.

Without that trait they’d be pretty close dps wise.

Which means that it would only take a similar trait or a nerf to the trait to bring everything in else in line.

I definitely would not say FT, EG, and Bomb are unusable. They fill much different roles than the grenade kit.

I mean how do you compare the EG which has a heavy focus on condition removal with a dps kit like grenade. You use them in completely different types of builds.

I never meant to compare elixer gun with grenades. I’m sorry if it came across that way. However I do feel like Tool Kit is absolutely useless. Flamethrower is a huge disappointment. It should be highly damage based with some CC (see my thread! I think the napalm spread is a great idea) but instead right now its just a bunch of random abilities that don’t flow together at all and its very frustrating.

PVE whise …
Bombs are amazing. Smokebomb gives you a fews seconds invinceability since everytime a blind is used up, its reapplied as long the field is active and adds a nice combofield. Consussion and fire bombs quite usefull too. normal bombs could use an addition effect to be on par with grenades. just gluebombs troubles me. 1s ist pretty low. bombs realy shine with a thoughness build.

Toolkit is … well … i like it for it but since all the skills have such a high casttime, its basicly useless for me.

Elixir Gun has 2.5 great skills. acid bomb and superlexir are great but fumigate is kinda annoying since the poison it applies doesnt stack.

flamethrower and ahs a great knockback ability but thats it for me. firewall is damagewhise useless but adds a combofield at least and smokevent is nothing compared to backdraft (the old beta skill). flameblast realy needs to explode on contact or burh them a least. baseatack seems awfully useless compared to bombs.

Sounds to me someone wants to switch to a kit and then not switch out.

I use, generally, my flamethrower to build might stacks, lob a pot shot of Flame Blast at someone or drop a Napalm (#4). Then, I switch to my rifle to dominate with CC abilities.

Pulled an add or two? Well, back to the thrower I go. Pop my Elixir U and burn everything to a crisp. Whatever is alive gets knocked back with Air Blast (#3) and while I use that skill I backpedal then immediately a Flame Blast (#2) again because it tends to explode right at the range they are at (if I backpedaled). Switch back to my rifle and Net someone, focusing on the other adds. Incendiary Ammo popped and switched to my Grenade Kit. Start tossing grenades like a madman, usualy cackling at my computer and generally worrying my girlfriend.

Pop heals on cooldown and drop a Supply Crate if things get really crowded. To be honest, I rarely run with one kit, I usually use two kits on my bar and then a few self buffs and I switch non stop between all three: my two kits and my weapons.

Creature.9476:

Sounds to me someone wants to switch to a kit and then not switch out.

I use, generally, my flamethrower to build might stacks, lob a pot shot of Flame Blast at someone or drop a Napalm (#4). Then, I switch to my rifle to dominate with CC abilities.

Pulled an add or two? Well, back to the thrower I go. Pop my Elixir U and burn everything to a crisp. Whatever is alive gets knocked back with Air Blast (#3) and while I use that skill I backpedal then immediately a Flame Blast (#2) again because it tends to explode right at the range they are at (if I backpedaled). Switch back to my rifle and Net someone, focusing on the other adds. Incendiary Ammo popped and switched to my Grenade Kit. Start tossing grenades like a madman, usualy cackling at my computer and generally worrying my girlfriend.

Pop heals on cooldown and drop a Supply Crate if things get really crowded. To be honest, I rarely run with one kit, I usually use two kits on my bar and then a few self buffs and I switch non stop between all three: my two kits and my weapons.

Well I feel like you should be kit swapping as an engineer but i don’t feel that means you should make the kits all garbled… kits should flow well together and hopefully have interesting, unique abilities something I feel this game lacks…

Bomb Kit is amazing for control, particularly in spvp. Bomb Engineers are a standard choice for point defense in tPvP. It’s also quite decent for 1v1’s against melee classes.

Elixir gun gives you amazing condition removal, mostly from light field from super elixir, which gives 1 time aoe condition removal, and then condition removal for you and all allies for each projectile finisher to go through it. Also, the AoE heal from Super Elixer stacks intensity with other regen effects which can be decent, but is really a secondary effect to the condition removal.

Elixir gun 1, tranquilizer dart, is an ‘I win" button for most 1v1’s (excluding mesmer, necro) for a defensive engineer with high vit/toughness. Reason being it augments your already considerable survival with permanent weakness on the opponent which is hugely useful (with decent vit/toughness, not good on power crit builds).

Acid Bomb (Elixir gun 4) is an amazing mobility skill by itself. Combine with rocket boots (Acid Bomb, as animation finishes hit rocket boots) and it will knock you almost out of render distance.

Fumigate is ‘meh’ for yourself, but a great condition removal for your allies. The poison is more of a side perk than anything really, reduces your opponents healing.

Elixir F is imo more reliable than netshot for preventing escapes, but thats just my opinion.

TL, DR Elixir Gun = One of if not the best condition removals in game for you and allies. Permanent Weakness on single target is also quite good.

Like what Creature said. Have you tried comboing with the kits? Their cool downs are only .5 seconds allowing some pretty nasty combos.

For example, Combo + Rifle’s Overshot to blow someone away, Wrench Kit’s magnet to pull them back, whack them with the Wrench Kit’s pry bar, Flamethrower’s Air Blast to blow them away again. Talk about enemy control!

Bomb kit’s Smoke Bomb + Leap Finisher = Self Cloak
Bomb kit’s Smoke Bomb + Blast Finisher = Aoe Cloak
Awesome for surprise attacks and sneaky escapes. Thieves aren’t the only ones who can cloak.

The long and short of it is, even if you use only one kit you cannot stay in that kit. A mesmer that never weapon swaps, or a guardian, or a thief, is just a bad player. We may not have a weapon swap, but we can switch kits.

While each kit we “equip” comes at the cost of a different spell, we have 6 kits we can use. We can equip a maximum of 4 at the same time, effectively changing buttons 1 through 5 to completely unique spells.

That means we can have 20 spells on that bar PLUS our 5 weapon skills, which is a whopping 25 skills. Add to that our 4 toolbelt skills and our elite skill and we can have up to 30 spells! No other profession can have that diversity. And maybe that’s the problem; you have the largest arsenal of tools to choose from, and that may lead you to think that they all need to be useful in all occassions, or maybe you just can’t choose because there’s too many choices.

(Sortof how a nearly empty fridge makes it easy to decide what to eat, but a fully stocked fridge makes it hard to choose anything at all!)

Bomb Kit need a slight damage for incentive to use over Grenades.

Elixir Gun is in a good place.

Flamethrower needs a boost in damage and some skills reworked like Flame Blast being detonatable.

Tool Kit needs more utility.

That’s all I have to add.

Nah, because of the added difficulty of using grenades, it is reasonable for them to do more damage then bombs.

What manner of utility specifically would you suggest for the tool kit?

I think you should experiment and be more creative with the kits. I initially tried only using one kit and sticking to it but then they really are mediocre except for the grenade kit. But when used in combination with your normal weapon or other kits and you swap regularly they are fantastic. Engineers do not have a cooldown on kit swaps like weapon swaps do. Once I had gotten used to the bindings and could somewhat keep an idea of the cooldowns on various abilities in my head I started to shine with kits.

Elixir gun is great with kit refinement to drop the water (I think??) combo field and had some nice utility for PvP and dungeons. It’s not meant to make you a ‘healer’. But applying a permanent weakness can be very useful and condition removal will really save a lot of health for your party.

Tool kit – I thought this was useless but it’s quickly becoming one of my favourites in PvE and PvP. The gear shield is brilliant at stopping predictable burst damage and magnet is useful for pulling ranged from some ledges in sPvP. Scatter nails is weak but is ok for running away – especially if you hit speedy kits and drop the nails. Pry bar has some nice damage to it but I’ll never intentionally get into melee against another melee just to use this. And throw wrench is brilliant with static discharge for those who like bursty engineers (I’ve only had mixed results though)

Flamethrower – I agree the first two skills can be annoying in that they are difficult to hit. But the low cooldown knockdown is really handy and so is the instant blind. I rarely drop the firefield in the middle of a fight but if I see the enemy coming at me I’ll drop it beforehand and combo fields are always useful in groups.

I still need to experiment with bomb kit. I consider myself to be an average engineer but I still see kits as being great things to switch to depending on the situation and then switch back. I would never stick with a kit just to spam (except grenades underwater). I switch to a kit to use an ability or two that the situation calls for, and switch to another kit or back to my standard weapon.

I still have a lot to learn with the kits but I’m having fun doing so and the depth to the engineer is both challenging and rewarding. I highly recommend trying more creative approaches with kits.

Quartz.3462:

I think you should experiment and be more creative with the kits. I initially tried only using one kit and sticking to it but then they really are mediocre except for the grenade kit. But when used in combination with your normal weapon or other kits and you swap regularly they are fantastic. Engineers do not have a cooldown on kit swaps like weapon swaps do. Once I had gotten used to the bindings and could somewhat keep an idea of the cooldowns on various abilities in my head I started to shine with kits.

Elixir gun is great with kit refinement to drop the water (I think??) combo field and had some nice utility for PvP and dungeons. It’s not meant to make you a ‘healer’. But applying a permanent weakness can be very useful and condition removal will really save a lot of health for your party.

Tool kit – I thought this was useless but it’s quickly becoming one of my favourites in PvE and PvP. The gear shield is brilliant at stopping predictable burst damage and magnet is useful for pulling ranged from some ledges in sPvP. Scatter nails is weak but is ok for running away – especially if you hit speedy kits and drop the nails. Pry bar has some nice damage to it but I’ll never intentionally get into melee against another melee just to use this. And throw wrench is brilliant with static discharge for those who like bursty engineers (I’ve only had mixed results though)

Flamethrower – I agree the first two skills can be annoying in that they are difficult to hit. But the low cooldown knockdown is really handy and so is the instant blind. I rarely drop the firefield in the middle of a fight but if I see the enemy coming at me I’ll drop it beforehand and combo fields are always useful in groups.

I still need to experiment with bomb kit. I consider myself to be an average engineer but I still see kits as being great things to switch to depending on the situation and then switch back. I would never stick with a kit just to spam (except grenades underwater). I switch to a kit to use an ability or two that the situation calls for, and switch to another kit or back to my standard weapon.

I still have a lot to learn with the kits but I’m having fun doing so and the depth to the engineer is both challenging and rewarding. I highly recommend trying more creative approaches with kits.

Perhaps you’re right… But the kits on their own aren’t very exciting or interesting or unique…

Imo most kits are meh cause they’re a mix of direct damage AND condition damage.

Like Toolkit: Why the kitten would I want to apply confusion to enemy with an obviously direct damage designed kit? gimme a daze instead plz.

Or Flamethrower: Good utilities, but damage wise, either you spec power/crit and use only #1 and #2, or you spec condition and never use 2. And as someone stated above, #4 will just be a combo field for power/crit specs, gaining some might from it maybe.
Clearly a bad balance just in the middle of condition and direct damage.

Or Elixir Gun: ok #4 is useful to gap escape, but but but…DIRECT DAMAGE AGAIN! (and pitiful damage), whereas the rest of the kit suggests a condition design.
Gimme a combo field at least plz.

Except for bomb kit, which is obviously designed for condi specs (or again, you will never use #2 and #3, just a waste compared to #1), and grenades which are perfectly balanced (conditions applied are useful whatever the spec, and the bleeding one is more powerful than #1), the rest seems undecided as to the type of damage delt.

I find the tool kit saving my life quite a bit especially in WvWvW and sPVP. Gear Shield is fantastically amazing. Pretty much negates hundred blade spike and heartseeker spam and you can even use it on the move. For example, a thief immobilizes me and I go to stealth due a trait. Either I switch to bomb kit and use smoke bomb or toolkit and use gear shield. It all depends on the situation. You can practically negate the initial spike. Gear shield blocks all the attacks from all sides.
I encountered a hundred blade warrior last night, I got stunned and I saw warrior switch to greatsword and I immediately switched to toolkit and popped gear shield. It blocked all 8 strikes and that’s 8 times you didn’t take that damage. Of course dodging works just as good. My only wish is to make gear shield match the duration of warrior’s shield stance [3 seconds]

Kit Refinement in the tool trait line synergies well with kits, especially with elixir gun.
When you switch to elixir gun, it casts super elixir and you can use that while your stunned or immobilized or w/e and switch back to your other kit or weapon. I use it in WvWvW often, often doubling casting it which heals around 180 from each super elixir. 3600hp in 10 seconds isn’t to bad as well as removing two conditions on impact.

I never was a fan of grenades and turrets, so I can’t say much about them. Underwater with grenades and that trait, its like godmode.

I use flamethrower in pve, it has good damage and utilities.

Mine and the tool belt skill throw mine were my favorite utility until it got nerfed. I do miss my 15 seconds of aoe stealth [smoke bomb], 15 seconds of aoe retaliation [super elixir], and 15 stacks of might which last around 25 seconds [napalm]. Yeah it was overpowered, but I never used it in sPVP. I mostly used it to roam around pve and WvWvW and to avoid mobs /players lol to get skill challenges and nodes. Since mine is kind of trash for me, my current favorite is big ol’ bomb with, love the explosion.

Currently, I’m using pistol and shield with med kit, toolkit, bomb kit, and elixir gun So far, I love it. For me its all around, has good condition removal, damage mitigation, damage and condition damage, snares, and so forth. It’s working out for me, but doesn’t mean it’ll work out for you. Engineer are very versatile, it can be played however you want to play it.

I swear by flamethrower, been using it ever since I unlocked it back in the beta. Is it complicated? No. That’s exactly what it’s not, I can practically afk and put #1 on autoattack and live to tell the tale. You see, it’s all about utilizing those massed hits. And that means critical triggers. I have 30 on firearms, with Infused Precision, Precise Sights and Juggernaut. I have 10 points on explosives for Exploit Weakness. 20 in Alchemy for Invigorating Speed and Backpack Regeneration. The last 10 to tools, just for the Static Discharge (Who doesn’t love Static Discharge?). So, I run ahead and start stuffing those crits down the throats of my foes, gaining advantage as I go. With Infused Precision and Invigorating Speed, I get both swiftness and vigor nearly constantly. Juggernaut gives a rather massive boost in survival, and who’s say no to passive 6 stacks of might (I do miss the stability, though)?

Honestly, I would use flamethrower even if it only had #1. The other skills have their places, too. #2 is handy for a quick AoE between dodges, though I admit I’d like something with a little more utility. #3, need I say anything? Air Blast is an AoE knockback with15 sec cooldown. #4 is for stacking burns on enemies in PvE, and for combo fields. Not the best, but not wasted. #5 is a panic button. An AoE flash blind gives you a second to think of a plan to get out of a situation too hot.

All kits have their situational usefulness. They’re not meant to be equipped for a longer time imo. To use your flamethrower example, your main complaint seems to be that the there’s no synergy in the skillset it offers, but it’s not a main weapon you keep equipped for long times. I see it simmilar to ele’s attunements, I don’t (always) swap to a certain attunement because I want to use ALL its skills or stay in it, I often switch attunement just for 1 specific CC skill or boon / effect it gives on attunement.
Knowing your toolkits well and finding nice combinations with other skills and using them situationally is what makes them interesting. Purely looking at its skillset as if it is a full weapon is never going to be satisfactory because they’re not made for that.

i’m running pistol/shield condition build and use FT for the following.

1. toolbelt to apply burning
2. FT #1 on the gate in WvWvW to hit enemies on the other side.
3. FT #3 for knock back
4. FT #4 to put a combo field on the ground then use pistol #1 and shield #5 combo finisher.
5. FT #5 for blind

what i usually do is i just switch to FT, use skill or skills then switch back to pistol and shield.

Hmm, an all-kit setup. Hadn’t even considered that. The one problem I foresee is that I already get lost in buttons, and in a panic hit the wrong one, even with just 1 or 2 kits :p Gonna try that though.

kits are mostly pointless. in pistol condition builds you need to constantly autoattack otherwise you lose dps, switching to a kit in a pistol build means you lose 2 seconds of autoattacking/bleeding dps (cause switching to a kit applies a 1 second cooldown on all weapo n skills, then using a the skill and then switch back to pistol). you also need atleast a stun breaker and condition removal, thus you are down to 1 utility slot left which means that you can only a single kit if you really want a proper build and even then it is questionable if it wouldnt be better to use any other utility skill to complement a certain playstyle.

Didn’t read all the replies – don’t have time.

I forced myself to use the flamethrower for a while .. and I found it works best when you use the rams head gadget.

Start fight with #2, you will deal some good damage at max range. Use a #1 to proc a burn, drop a firewall and #5 to force them to miss you, can get another #1 in there while they’re sitting in the flames and they still haven’t hit you. Use #3 to push them back and get a couple more #1’s off. When they get to you again, ram head them and immediately lob a #2. Ram head puts them at the perfect distance and you will nuke them pretty hard.

While I agree it’s not perfect, the flamethrower does a decent job at keeping enemies at mid-range and controlling them. I kill stuff faster with the rifle though, but it’s nice to change it up once in a while.

I’m forever gutted that the flamethrower is a kit rather than a proper weapon, as I thought it would be when I first heard of it in game previews all that time ago.

CptCosmic.3156:

kits are mostly pointless. in pistol condition builds you need to constantly autoattack otherwise you lose dps.

Sorry, but you need to learn how to argue a point. What you are saying is that with a pistol condition build, kits become useless. Because with that build, you rely on applying conditions using your pistol skills. So yeah, switching away from the pistol is bad.

There are many builds that support proper usage of kits, or multiple kits. Just because a guardian focuses on shield related traits does not mean all two hander skills are useless.

How about they increase the cooldown of kit swaps to be on par with regular weapon swaps, increase the effectiveness of kits to compensate, and implement a grandmaster trait that reduces the cooldown back to where it is now to be used with builds that focus on kit swapping.

Mongo.2490:

How about they increase the cooldown of kit swaps to be on par with regular weapon swaps

i’d personaly start to cry if they do this. currently i rely heavily on swapping kits just to get their free extra spell (10 points in tools) and to fire up all cooldown i have available, that it would completly deny me this playstyle.

Well with the trait, possibly in the ‘tool’ line, the cooldown would be reduced again.

My point is, it seems like ANet overall kittens engineers with the thought that “Oh, engineers can swap kits every second so that makes up for it”. Which basically means, if you’re not swapping kits, you’re not taking advantage of the only aspect that puts engineers on par with the rest. The solution: Make the fast kit swapping a build. This way, if I have no interest in swapping every 3 seconds, I’m not penalized.. but those who do still can.

well yes, this makes sense somehow especialy since other classes ususaly got the same trait. but it needs to be rather far down the tree. if it would be a 30 point skill, its still denying this playstyle.

Tuomir.1830:

I swear by flamethrower, been using it ever since I unlocked it back in the beta. Is it complicated? No. That’s exactly what it’s not, I can practically afk and put #1 on autoattack and live to tell the tale. You see, it’s all about utilizing those massed hits. And that means critical triggers. I have 30 on firearms, with Infused Precision, Precise Sights and Juggernaut. I have 10 points on explosives for Exploit Weakness. 20 in Alchemy for Invigorating Speed and Backpack Regeneration. The last 10 to tools, just for the Static Discharge (Who doesn’t love Static Discharge?). So, I run ahead and start stuffing those crits down the throats of my foes, gaining advantage as I go. With Infused Precision and Invigorating Speed, I get both swiftness and vigor nearly constantly. Juggernaut gives a rather massive boost in survival, and who’s say no to passive 6 stacks of might (I do miss the stability, though)?

Honestly, I would use flamethrower even if it only had #1. The other skills have their places, too. #2 is handy for a quick AoE between dodges, though I admit I’d like something with a little more utility. #3, need I say anything? Air Blast is an AoE knockback with15 sec cooldown. #4 is for stacking burns on enemies in PvE, and for combo fields. Not the best, but not wasted. #5 is a panic button. An AoE flash blind gives you a second to think of a plan to get out of a situation too hot.

Quoting this so I can try this out later.

I think 30 points is an adequate amount of points for defining a specific playstyle…

You guys dont like toolkit?

I saw it and thought it would be a pretty nice kit.

You can block those lame kitten heartseeker spam thiefs sooo easily. When they stealth just press 4 and watch those thiefs blasting all their initiative.

I saw that pull (#5) and thought it’d be sweet for interrupting stomps from a safe distance. To grab an overly obvious 100b warrior away from my ele ally. To set up for that monster truck #3. Or to pull people away as they wanna jump into the Raid on the Capricorn water evil laugh Sometimes i start with it before a teamfight in 8v8 (keeping #4 ready if kitten hits the fan) which basically drags an enemy into your zerg resulting in instant death. Although im usually hunted by this person for the rest of the match, haha. But yeah im inclined to admit it needs a shorter cast or longer range.

You also get to throw that wrench in a straight line with toolbelt which actually does pretty sweet burst especially with that lightning bolt trait. Nice synergy with rifle knockback too. Which you can also trait to cripple for 5 secs, same as your #1, used with #5 its awesome for killing fleeing enemies.

The #2 has a really long cast, usually not being worth the time to cast as a glass cannon..but it can be traited to drop the caltrips instantly, with a shorter cooldown, on switching to this kit. You can also put them down THEN pull somebody to you. I mostly use it while turning around a corner, both to mitigate some damage during the long cast but also to pretty much snare anyone that follows me..

Was i wrong? It really does suck? Not just compared to Grenades or Bomb kits due to their crazy damage/conditions?

Yup, I like tool kit. I love pistol #3, swap to bomb kit for bomb #3 then swap to tool kit for #3. You can literally keep a minimum of 2 and up to 5 stacks of AoE confusion up at all times. Nothing is better then watching enemies do 1000+ damage every time they you.

I love the AoE bleed/cripple that cam be kept up 100% of the time with kit refinement. And a quick swap for a 3rd block after I burn the 2 on my shield. And anyone worth their salt will easily learn every enemies ranged attacks and be able to block them all or dodge. With 3 blocks and a minimum of 2 dodged at your finger tips, you can mitigate a ton of damage.

I think the intention with many kits was to not make them autonomous and independent. They are supposed to complement the guns and each other.

You can switch between them without a cooldown at any moment. Use it to your advantage. If you insist on using one weapon or one kit at all times, you do it wrong.

@CptCosmic.3156
so you are saying that having 4 (5 if you include FT #1, which i use mainly for it’s ability to pass through gate and not for it applying burning) more ways to apply burning condition and have additional CC skill is a bad idea?

so do you think that people who use kit will just blindly use/equip it and not base on what situation they are into?

so do you think that you need condition remover and stun breaker 100% all the time?

yes this is all true. switching around kits means I lose alot of bleed stacks on my target and incendiary powder will not trigger. I have enough of CC with a shield equipped. in regular pve you might get away without a condition removal or stunbreaker but in dynamic events or pvp you really cant. why should I use kits when elixirs give me plenty of utility and dont kitten my bleed application?

even if you use rifle it is questionable. once you get good gear your rifle will outdamage kits (traited grenades would be the only exception) and give you more abilities that you most likely wont need.

I currently running a Rifle/Toolbelt lightning build.

And I love Toolkit.

First I was only using the toolbelt skill to cast a lightning. But I woke up someday and tried the kit itself. It’s really better then I thought it would be. Especially since auto attack got added.

I burst my toolbelt and rifle from range, taking them apart. I jump on them, stun them with battering ram, using the shotgun like ability of rifle. I then switch to tool kit, use ability 3. It sometime hit for 3k damage + confusion damage, and I’m poorly geared. Then you just use rifle 4 ability to go back to range.

Gear Shield looked weak first, but then I started using it when I get focused and its amazing too. Can block thousand of damage.

I gotta say though that the 2 ability is really situationnal. I only use it when I’m running away, and even then it doesn’t work that well. The cast them is just way too long if you compare to other skill like pistol 5 skill.

The magnetic number 5, I don’t use it often ether. It just too limited with range and cooldown. Cooldown is really killing it, you have to stay in range during like 2 second. I get canceled so often or outranged. A greater range or no cooldown would be perfect!

Still I love this kit! With toolbelt build, like I said I’m poorly geared and I still burn people really fast in WvW.

I am absolutely in love with everything engineer. So many options and wonderful for people who are ADD.

The conditions stack so well between kits. The mobs i fight are always poisoned bleeding and on fire. I almost feel evil…almost. Open with my pistol, bleed em a bit, shoot out the electric shot, get em a lil confused. Toss my shield at them to interrupt them and confuse them some more. Put on incendiary shot to get the bleed back on, plus a burn. Switch to the flamethrower, knock back the enemies who think they are clever and getting close, shoot out and napalm blast to giggle, burn em with fame jet, through down the flame wall, switch to elixir gun. Shoot in blast elixr to get a burning shot combo over and over again. lob in the cripple and speed up, move in close with fumigate, and jump back with acid bomb. BACK TO PISTOL shot in poison darts to get em nice and sick. Summon Grenade kit, through out the frost grenade slow em down and poison em again.

I could go on and on. But each Kit has its niche, They are meant to be used together, and not one be all powerful. I don’t follow that exact pattern everytime, but for situations that get sticky and I can’t, there are other utilities at my disposal. Smoke vent to give me an extra moment to get away from mobs that are overwhelming me. Smoke grenade for the same reason. Or even toss in a smoke grenade to protect your melee buddies when you know a boss is about to do one of their more deadly attacks.

I can not agree with sentiment that any of the kits are useless. By themselves, maybe, but they are not meant to be used by themselves. Switch, change and go with the situation. Engineer can do it all.

Bomb and tool kit, are the 2 that are least useful out of all the kits.

Forgot to mention about Toolkit, even I think it’s a good kit, I really bad when you pair it with turret.

I tried to do a turret build once, and using toolkit is just useless. You lose one turret slot, and the only thing you do is repair your turret for what, like 300 hp? This will only save your turret for like one more hit. And you have to be melee.

I don’t like the synergy between toolkit and turret, it just didn’t work right for me.

The thing with tool kit is its more for survivability / escape than it is for anything else.

I like it in bursty tool belt rifle builds since the channeled block + instant box of nails with kit refinement is great for when I need to cheese it or when my endurance runs out and I need to avoid a heavy dps move.

The tool belt is great for my dps rotation as well.

I do not get much use out of the 1 skill since I am not constantly staying in melee, nor the pull since I just haven’t found a spot in a rotation for it.

The #3 skill crow bar is a part of my dps rotation throw.

But I do not see tool kit as a kit I can stay in for long periods of time. Like bomb kit, grenade kit, or flamethrower.

With those there are builds where I’ll simply stay in the kit. Oddly enough it is typically because I am getting the bulk of my damage from the #1 abilities. Rather than doing a 3-4 ability sequence.

Vigilence.4902:

Bomb and tool kit, are the 2 that are least useful out of all the kits.

You might be talking about PvE, but in PvP both of these kits are very valuable.