Guild Wars 2

After toying around with Engineer in WvW until hitting 80. I found I absolutely love the Flame Thrower + Tool Kit set up. They support each other so well. This is the following build I am using:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcIQJAqelspCYH5SrF17IxoCdG0DAX37K6RlbMlB

How ever. I want to make it optimal. I’m unsure what stats to use to make the most out of the flame thrower since that is my primary weapon whilst the tool kit is my ‘oh puppy’ fall back.

What sigils should be used on shield and pistol? Also should I gear up Power/Prec/Crit or Power/Prec/Condition for gear? Would Power/Prec/Toughness gems also suffice for the upgrade slot?

Happy to hear you are enjoying the engineer class. Might I offer some suggestions?

I’m assuming from your trait and weapon choices you like to play a “skirmisher” type playstyle that involves quite a bit of mid-to-melee range. That said your build is very close to Mask’s wvw build that revolves around conditions, confusion and ultimately has to engage in some melee range combat.

Traits / Utility slots
Swap Elixir C for Elixir S. 3 seconds of invuln is powerful, and you can still swap to toolkit and flamethrower while invuln and perform actions like drop box of nails, or vent smoke. This also lets you drop Self-Regulating Defenses (Alchemy 10pt) for something else like, Fast Acting Elixirs, Protection Injection or Blood Injection. Often I would get bursted past the 25% threshold and die without it proccing the invuln so I prefer more reliable traits. Also, the protection boon will last longer if you play with boon duration runes.

I might play around with swapping 409 out for HGH. With boon duration runes (2xMonk, 2xSuperior Water, 2xMajor water) your boons last a long time, and I’ve easily seen boons hit 1min durations. This synergizes well with Energy Conversion Matrix – giving you 1% more damage per boon. This might also play well with Juggernaut allowing you to maintain longer duration might stacks boosting both your direct flamethrower damage and your conditions.

I would move your 10 points in Tools and place them into Inventions for “Cloaking Device”. I know its hard to give up speedy kits. Trust me I do. I finally let go a couple weeks ago, and it was frustrating at first – until I started playing with Cloaking Device and discovered it is amazing at providing escapes and avoiding burst from opponents. If you chain cloaking device stealth into toss elixir s stealth, you have 6 seconds of stealth and can completely throw your enemies off track or just escape. Also it provides a good way to get into position for pry bars and blow torches (if using pistol offhand – highly recommended – the burn is strong) or flame thrower attacks.

I’m not a huge fan of Precise Sights in the Firearms tree, I think increased range on pistol is more advantageous. Lets face it, sometimes you’re going to have to play at range and having that pistol range means you land more Static Shots.

Weapons
You could drop your shield for a second pistol and open with Flamethrower Toolbelt > Magnet > Pry Bar > Static Shot > Blow Torch > Dart Volley > Flamethrower. With condition damage and confusion being strong in WvW at the moment, this is a serious amount of damage and tons of conditions to remove. From there it’s a matter of chasing them down with the Flamethrower and reapplying conditions. (if they haven’t killed themselves via confusion yet)

Gear & Stats
Gear-wise, Mask’s stats are very nice and may not be attainable for you right now, but he has found a nice balance of stats: 1500 Power, 1700+ Prec, 1350 Tough, 1500 Vit, 1200+ Cond damage. This means he has a healthy amount of HP, is rather durable because of the toughness, and is easily over 60% crit with Fury up (which is almost all the time). A mix of carrion, rabid, soldier gear will get your stats near that level – however you won’t hit those stats without some ascended items and food/oil.

If you aim for stats balanced like this your direct damage on FT won’t be abysmal, your condition damage will be strong, and you’ll be able to take a few hits.

I might actually try this out myself. I’ll just swap out elixir b for the flamethrower. It could be interesting.

Some interesting ideas there. How ever I don’t think its the same play style I have at the moment.

Tool kit is primarily used for two things: yanking enemies out of a zerg in battles and hitting them with pry bar to make the most of their panic. Gear shield has saved my life countless times along with Self-Regulating Defenses. I never seem to hit the S elixir in time.

I only use my pistol / shield as a last resort where I cannot reach my targets with flame thrower due to elevation or gear shield is on cool down and I need a quick save from the shield’s defensive abilities.

I mostly use my flame thrower. Either to burn enemy siege/zergs through doors or to chase down an enemy after hitting them with the magnet + pry bar combo. Even some times feel brave and charge right into a mob with flame thrower and watch the numbers fly.

It is surprisingly effective and am constantly being showered with loot bags. I actually have yet to die either after hitting level 60.

The build isn’t really skirmishing. Rather more damage/support. Steady flow of damage whilst having really good condition removal.

This all is remarkably close to my latest ventures in build experiments.
It’s fun

Blah, people and their computers that can run wvw…

Still, from what I’ve seen in theory for wvw, this seems solid in big group play, not sure how it would stack up 1v1. The speedy kits is probably necessary for keeping up with your teammates, while you could switch out c for b for more reliable boons. That’s more of a personal preference though, as c helps avoid big condition spikes. An alternative to speedy kits that would make you more threatening in 1v1 would be putting 10 in explosives for burn, switching vuln on crit for swiftness and using b instead of c. Also, if you switch tool kit for elixir s, 20% reduction on elixirs becomes godly.

As for p/p versus p/s, they’re about equal, you’ll get more staying power from the latter and more damage from the former. Given the nature of wvw fights though, shield is probably your better bet.

Azure Prower, I call what you are doing skirmishing. You’re not standing at max range, you’re going in and out of enemy range and entering the “no mans land” between two opposing forces. Playing the mid-range, pulling players, etc.

However, if you want to pull a player and increase your success rate at stomping them, HGH + boon duration runes + confusion & conditions = dead player. Build might stacks in FT and HGH, pull them, apply your pistol/toolkit confusions, burns and poison (to reduce their healing) then chase them down with FT again. Elixir S and the stomp is yours.

After all, if you want to support your zerg – removing enemies from the equation undoubtedly helps.

That said, if you just want to be “showered in loot bags” – go grenades and collect your loot. Or continue suicide charging the enemy zerg and trying to tag as many as possible.

Unfortunately I find too many players that prefer to collect lots of bags from the safety of a zerg, rather than endanger their life and commit to being offensive. (God forbid you die and have to run back!) But that’s for another thread.

FT overall is lacking to the point where i went 1 vs 2 against an engineer and a necro and killed them both engineer returned and well you know your build is bad when your enemy(me) dives into your supply crate turrets shrugs your FT damage and demolishes your HP instead.

before classes are brought i Am an engineer myself im glass cannon and still had more survivavility than the other engineer who had shields and Elixir S thats how bad FT seems and pray your enemy doesnt pop retaliation.