Guild Wars 2

Ok, after finally getting my hands on the grandmaster traits I verified that flamethrower and other kits simply do not scale to weapon power. So should someone who is not built with support traits such as the healing bombs simply forgo the weapon kits?

I’m not saying that weapon kits are useless, but if they don’t scale to your equipable weapons when leveling, that means the difference will only get worse at 80 with the legendary weapons. So would it be better to maybe forgo them unless absolutely needed for a support build such as Bomb/elixir gun kits for healing?

First off, Legendary weapons don’t have better weapon stats than Exotics.

Secondly, it has been said about 15 different times that ArenaNet is working on Sigils/Weapon Stats working with our kits.

Thirdly, no. Don’t give up your kits just for niche support builds. Grenade Kit is our strongest damage weapon.

It’s not that they don’t scale with weapons, it’s that they don’t really make any sense in regards to where their grandmaster traits are placed.

Flamethrower does a lot more with power then precision and condition damage, yet Juggernaut is 30 points deep in the precision/condi dmg tree. Elixir gun has an easier time stacking bleed which would make it a perfect fit for that tree, yet some of its best traits are scattered across Alchemy, a tree which is better served towards its buff duration and condition removal then buffing the damage on the gun (after all I’d much rather take 409 than improved elixir gun damage). Bomb Kit has one of its best traits (elixir infused bombs) lodged as a grandmaster trait in the tree that is littered with improvements to turrets and shield skills. Grenades put out a deceptive amount of condition damage yet their stuck in the power tree (which is both good and bad).

Also, most boss fights in the later dungeons require a lot of kiting and believe me, I have tried subject alpha as a grenadier and it was NOT fun or entertaining. I had a far smoother time just spamming my auto with the trait that gave me swiftness on crit, which also gave me vigor (a trait in the alchemy tree) along with elixir R. I was more mobile, lived the entire fight, and was able to throw out key revives.

The kits definitely need to be reworked to be more viable in PvE. I was in a group with an engi in CoF path 2 and he was a grenadier. After 15 minutes he logged off because his hand was cramping up. No joke. Strafing without an auto attack is horrible.

I will say this though, 20/20/0/30/0 with the proper traits does extremely well as a support dps with the rifle and the elixir gun, non stop swiftness/vigor, aoe ress, and a very sturdy way to stack bleed. Run 2 afflicted, 2 krait, 2 centaur runes for maximum bleed duration. Don’t get suckered into burn damage. More and more math is coming out that stacking its duration is a dps loss in pve as it doesn’t stack in intensity.

@Decklan
Intresting build. Mind telling us what armor you go for and jewlery? Also Im guessing you are using elixir gun and elixir R. Which 3rd utility spell do you use?

Do you mind providing a link to that build?