Guild Wars 2

Sorry, just theory crafting again. If I decide to go the bomber route, I’d like to be both sturdy and do steady damage too.

Has anyone considered/tried a 20/0/30/20/0 bomb build with exclusively Cleric’s gear?

Cleric’s Gear offers Healing as the Primary, and Power and Toughness as the Secondary stats. But in this build ALL these stats would be adding to power.

Forceful Explosives, Explosive Powder (larger bomb radius, +10% damage with bombs, and +200 power)

Energized Armor, Power Shoes, Elixir Infused Bombs (10% of Toughness is added to power, + run speed in battle (personal choice here), 10% of Healing is also added to power, explosions cause group healing, + 300 Toughness and + 300 Healing)

Protection Injection, Backpack Regenerator (Protection when stunned, Healing every second with bomb kit, + 200 vitality)

There are other benefits, but you see the main ones there. I’m only level 25 now so I don’t know what final stats would be at 80 in Exotic (all I will likely be able to afford). I don’t know about the best runes either, but for sigils I would do bloodlust to get to 25 stacks, and then perhaps force and night. I was thinking about Rifle and Rocket Turrets to help with ranged enemies, and I think that when they explode we get healed too? I don’t know which Elite I would use, but the Charr arial bombardment one might be a nice AOE to add.

In theory this build would be good at self or group healing, be very survivable to just bunker down and outlast the enemies, and also do decent damage after the power from 10% of Toughness and Healing is added in.

Again, this would be for PVE and maybe dungeons. I know nothing about PVP or WVW because I haven’t tried those yet.

Also, I’m not claiming any originality here. I’m sure someone has tried this before. I just wanted to find out how it performs in advance. Thanks for reading.

I actually run something similar from time to time. I go 10/0/30/20/10, getting radius increase, 20% reduced damage while disabled, improved elites, healing bombs, 20% reduced elixir cooldown, backpac regenerator, and speedy kits. I run rifle, bomb kit, and whatever 2 elixirs are most useful to the party at the time (Default B and R).

Deal decent damage from all the power, while healing in a rather large AoE for ~270 every attack. I run a weapon with a Superior Sigil of Life, so I routinely get up to ~350 HP/auto per target. My armor has Altruism runes as a catch-all for any cleric’s build; if I were to tailor to this build I would likely use the runes that improve rezzing since that’s the main point of having an anchor.

That said, this isn’t a “tank” spec. It’s a defensive spec, sure, but by no means a tank.

engi has been my main for over a year now, but i have never played a bomb heal spec. however, if i were so inclined i’d maybe run something like this

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqelIq6dX3ynF17Iy4DdWoHSohpWfZIXtFA-jwBBYfBkEBgIAM5pIasFhFRjVXDT5iIqGA-e

i wouldn’t run cleric gear because for elixir infused bombs, the difference between 300 healing power and 1300 healing power is ~120 healing, extremely negligible in pve. you’re still supportive through team might and fury, aoe healing and condi removal, and combo fields/blast finishers, but you also deal good damage. you can take out 5 in tools and put it into explosives for grenadier just in case you encounter a fight where you need range. you’d swap elixir infused bombs for something like power shoes in that scenario. you can also swap out some zerk pieces of pvt or knights or clerics if you want to be sturdier.

ellesee.8297:

engi has been my main for over a year now, but i have never played a bomb heal spec. however, if i were so inclined i’d maybe run something like this

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQJAqelIq6dX3ynF17Iy4DdWoHSohpWfZIXtFA-jwBBYfBkEBgIAM5pIasFhFRjVXDT5iIqGA-e

i wouldn’t run cleric gear because for elixir infused bombs, the difference between 300 healing power and 1300 healing power is ~120 healing, extremely negligible in pve. you’re still supportive through team might and fury, aoe healing and condi removal, and combo fields/blast finishers, but you also deal good damage. you can take out 5 in tools and put it into explosives for grenadier just in case you encounter a fight where you need range. you’d swap elixir infused bombs for something like power shoes in that scenario. you can also swap out some zerk pieces of pvt or knights or clerics if you want to be sturdier.

Don’t underestimate the healing turret though. 1300 healing power is a lot when you factor in the AoE overcharge heal and all the water blast finishers. I don’t really use elixir infused bombs, but I’ve always just seen it as supplemental stuff anyways (much better for node bunkering than group healing, IMO).

I’ve actually used a similar build (30/0/30/0/10) and clerics… it was rare, not exoitc, but I can give some feedback

1) It kills fast for a tank. You will never keep up with a zerker however, but they will be long dead by the time you notice you were even hit.

2) full clerics is overkill. Between smoke bomb, shield 4&5, CCs from other kits you just don’t need that much defense most of the time. Honestly, you are a better tank by using your skills smartly than relying on healing power.

3) that said… bosses. Can’t be CCed, can’t really be blinded. You lose about 3/5ths of your survival as soon as something gets kitten stacks of Defiant

4) keep something ranged ready, too many bosses hate melee users

Honestly, if you want to be a big supporter, go for a better mix of gear (some knights is nice) and pick kits/utilities that are able

Imperatora.7654:

I’ve actually used a similar build (30/0/30/0/10) and clerics… it was rare, not exoitc, but I can give some feedback

1) It kills fast for a tank. You will never keep up with a zerker however, but they will be long dead by the time you notice you were even hit.

2) full clerics is overkill. Between smoke bomb, shield 4&5, CCs from other kits you just don’t need that much defense most of the time. Honestly, you are a better tank by using your skills smartly than relying on healing power.

3) that said… bosses. Can’t be CCed, can’t really be blinded. You lose about 3/5ths of your survival as soon as something gets kitten stacks of Defiant

4) keep something ranged ready, too many bosses hate melee users

Honestly, if you want to be a big supporter, go for a better mix of gear (some knights is nice) and pick kits/utilities that are able

Well, high healing on 1 spamming might be nice for turning some dungeons into speedruns, where Berserker doesn’t cut it. Maybe.

I do not find the healing power to be worth it. I prefer the extra 6000 hp and a lesser heal on bomb with PVT gear.

HPow is not worth the investment, and tanking isnt something that you can do on content that is harder. For PVE, its best to kill the mob before it kills you and your team mates.

Going tanky will often hurt your group more than it helps. The longer the mob is alive = the more time you have to take dmg = the more risk involved. Of course there will always be exceptions, but the general rule of thumb is: Zerker is king.

Also, this is implying that your team mates arent keyboard-droolers.

Elixir infused bombs… this trait is one of the most overrated and one of the weakest grandmaster traits. It is not worth to go for it. Better run 30/10/0/20/10 or 30/10/15/015 for support builds.

Forestnator.6298:

Elixir infused bombs… this trait is one of the most overrated and one of the weakest grandmaster traits. It is not worth to go for it. Better run 30/10/0/20/10 or 30/10/15/015 for support builds.

False, I mean your entitled to your opinion but… No. Now I do agree that for dungeon running zerker is the best BUT the added healing from your bomb spam adds up to quite a lot (in fact it’s the #1 group sustain ability I the game)

Also from a solo perspective elixir infused bombs + backpack regenerator + regeneration = one tough sob. Add in healing turret, water fields and all the blast finishers and our healing is on par with elementalist (tbh I feel like its greater than eles) great trait for bunkers and other pvp/solo pve builds. Also a good build for a commander.

A guild mate of mine had ran a similar build a year or so ago, and together with an AH Guardian they could tank most bosses in low-level dungeons and fractals.
However in high-level it’s often either dodge-or-die, and not having permanent Vigor in those cases makes you squashier than most Berserker Engineers with it.

redslion.9675:

Imperatora.7654:

I’ve actually used a similar build (30/0/30/0/10) and clerics… it was rare, not exoitc, but I can give some feedback

1) It kills fast for a tank. You will never keep up with a zerker however, but they will be long dead by the time you notice you were even hit.

2) full clerics is overkill. Between smoke bomb, shield 4&5, CCs from other kits you just don’t need that much defense most of the time. Honestly, you are a better tank by using your skills smartly than relying on healing power.

3) that said… bosses. Can’t be CCed, can’t really be blinded. You lose about 3/5ths of your survival as soon as something gets kitten stacks of Defiant

4) keep something ranged ready, too many bosses hate melee users

Honestly, if you want to be a big supporter, go for a better mix of gear (some knights is nice) and pick kits/utilities that are able

Well, high healing on 1 spamming might be nice for turning some dungeons into speedruns, where Berserker doesn’t cut it. Maybe.

Not really… EIB works best on long battles (where the + healing comes in handy) which precludes speed runs