Guild Wars 2

I want to make an engineer, and the only reason why is because I want to use the flamethrower and nothing else. On one hand, yes I like the way it looks.. but on the other, I do not want to purposely play something that is underpowered for the sake of looks. So my question is: Can I make an engi who uses the flamethrower the majority of the time? Is that play style going out the way to use something I like because it is incredibly weak compared to everything else?

It is a fairly common build and play style. Scroll trough the first 3-4 pages of the engineer sub forums here and you should see 10 threads on it. (Honestly I always go through the first 2 pages at minimum before I ever make a new tread)

I feel the flamethrower is significantly underpowered compared to pretty much every other weapon option.
The blind is notably weaker then other blind applying abilities.
FT 1 is mathematically much much weaker then other pretty much every other auto attack. even if you ignore the targeting/missing issues.

FT2 is good in groups. it misses too much solo. FT3 is good.
Juggernaut is good.
Fireforged, deadly mixture and juggernaut, force you into a 30firearms, 20 alch build. which leaves very little real options.

Some ppl may disagree but in my opinion Flamethrower in its current state is only usefull in spvp(but only in certain builds for pushback and blind skills) and can be handy for DE’s grinding in Orr. Thats it.

Even if traitet for it, flamethrower is no good as main damage kit/weapon. Sure, you can use it as such, but you will be seriously kittening yourself. Its underpowered damage wise and bugged – auto attack skill(1) while moving/strafing will miss half of the time. Skills 2 and 4 are pretty bad and akward to use.
Its rather useless for WvW, and its painfull to use as leveling weapon.

Casia.4281:

The blind is notably weaker then other blind applying abilities.

What is the difference in blinds that differentiates the FT one to be so weak, the duration?

The aoe blind has a major strength in that it can be used during any action without interruption that action – it’s a very handy interrupt.

coglin.1496:

Casia.4281:

The blind is notably weaker then other blind applying abilities.

What is the difference in blinds that differentiates the FT one to be so weak, the duration?

Duration is generally the same.
range, secondary effects, cooldown etc.

Weapon based:
Grenade-flash grenade 5s blindness. 150 aoe radius. 1200 range. 10s cooldown. 10s duration if both hit.(6.5×3 with 30 in explosives)
Smoke bomb- 5s blindness. 240 aoe radius. 3s smoke field. 25s CD
Static shot- 900 range .37p direct, 2 stacks of confuse, 3s blind. 4 target bounce. 15s cd

Utility slot:
Flame turret-overcharge/smoke screen. 2s blind per pulse 5s duration. 450 radius. combo field smoke. 30s CD
Elixir U. Throw elixir U. 30%ish chance of smoke screen. line smoke combo field. blocks projectiles. 60s cd OK, unreliable as a blind. but an option.

Traits:
Go for the eyes. rifle trait. 50% chance on crit for 5s, 10s CD
Autobomb dispenser: smoke bomb when disabled. 60s CD. an option for bomb builds, although unlikely.

FT: smoke vent. 5s blind, 180 radius 20s cd.
Its very basic. No frills, no extras. an entire slot with a 20s CD, to make your opponant miss one attack. That is garbage. The only other, with no extra effects is flash grenade. which is 1200 ranged, and 10s CD.
Why does SMOKE vent, not have a smoke field?

Want real laughs? compare it to a thief’s black powder.
direct damage hit. 900range blind, and 4s smoke field 180 aoe. No cooldown, initiative.

Smoke fields blind on projectiles, aoe stealth on blast, stealth on leap (don’t think we have a whirl option.)

A chunk of your information is wrong on the blinds. Some are incorrect duration, others incorrect recast, and I see at least one range completely wrong.

Casia, I know I gave you the heads up in at least 2 other treads to stop using the inaccurate wiki as if it was an encyclopedia. You need to learn to speak of your own experience.

As of know your guiding a new engineer player blindly in the wrong direction by posting misinformation.

oh?, builder I use when I don’t feel like logging in to check things is usually pretty accurate, and up to date.

I use the FT often in WvW and pve dungeons and i found that full berserker gear with the spec i run works pretty well

I go 10 into explosives and get V
30 into firearms and pick up V,VIII, and XI
30 into Alchemy and get VI,VIII, and IX

I also use omnomberry pies which gives a huge damage boost and survivability boost with how often it procs from the auto attack

For Utilities I use elixir S for survivability and elixir B for more damage output and i also use medkit because i pvp most of the time but the other heal abilities can work just as well so thats up to you

You can also switch one of the elixirs out for the elixir gun for the 2 regen ticks and self knockback if youre good at switching kits/weapons.

Casia.4281:

oh?, builder I use when I don’t feel like logging in to check things is usually pretty accurate, and up to date.

Yeah, those sites, although handy for build ideas, are slow to update a lot.

As well, there were some changes to blind skill changes as recent as the update on the 15th.

I messed around with Flamethrower and you’re going to want to increase your burn damage as much as you can and get incendiary power. When you use #1 and you plan on autoattacking with it, it can hit up to 3 targets at once. It will then light anyone hit on fire with the last hit. When you get incendiary powder you can then light someone on fire during the casting of it, but only if you crit. So if you have a high crit build you can apply a very long burn duration. You can also use its toolbelt skill which will guarantee a burning. I’ve applied 30+ seconds of burning with it, however if they use a condition removal it easily negates it. I’d advise using the rifle for it support potential and going down the alchmeny traits and investing in potions. You can use Elixer S and then use Flamethrower and use the flamethrower while you’re invulnerable. But as many have said FT is a bit underpowered. It is easily negatable, close range required, and doesn’t do a whole lot of dps to what is out there.

FT is perfectly fine dps and utility wise.

You can do a lot of different builds with it and it has a lot of different pros and cons to other builds like P/P or bomb or grenade.

I personally find the FT / Elixir build to be fearsome, when fighting a skilled engi. Especially if they pair it with P/S or P/P.

Alright, I’m fired up and ready to get trolled: what advantages does the FT have over bombs and grenades?

reflect/knockback. fire field.

Ploppy the only thing they have is the napalm bomb which is pretty good if you time it right to explore in a group of people and then the AoE knockback. Everything else they have those two kits have (besides the auto attack). Only difference is in the damage buff from traits and the cooldowns.

I feel you bro, I wanna play with tool kit but it sucks

Flamethrower can shoot through walls, which makes it ideal for various dungeons (CM for example with all the side rooms and enemies that do not move) and i use it for gate defence in wvw.
Other than that, i don’t find much use for it.

Incorrect. The tool kit is great. You just have to know how to use it. Such as plant BoB then use the tool kit to pull them to you. With my condition build, the pry bar chained with static shot and concussion bomb, allow me to keep confusion up 100% of the time, with a minimum of 2 stack up to 5, depending on which ability is up in the rotation

coglin.1496:

Incorrect. The tool kit is great. You just have to know how to use it. Such as plant BoB then use the tool kit to pull them to you. With my condition build, the pry bar chained with static shot and concussion bomb, allow me to keep confusion up 100% of the time, with a minimum of 2 stack up to 5, depending on which ability is up in the rotation

I was talking about PvE and not PvP, the toolkit is useless in PvE but anyway this thread is about the flamethrower which is also kind of useless in PvE and PvP if you ask me.

SameHH.1048:

coglin.1496:

Incorrect. The tool kit is great. You just have to know how to use it. Such as plant BoB then use the tool kit to pull them to you. With my condition build, the pry bar chained with static shot and concussion bomb, allow me to keep confusion up 100% of the time, with a minimum of 2 stack up to 5, depending on which ability is up in the rotation

I was talking about PvE and not PvP, the toolkit is useless in PvE but anyway this thread is about the flamethrower which is also kind of useless in PvE and PvP if you ask me.

It’s not totally useless for pve. I’ve used it to pull targets from groups of baddies in dungeons which allows the group to take things on 1 at a time.

I switched from grenades to FT/Elixir Gun for PvE. AoE from 1 & 2 coupled with static discharge is great for DE’s & farming if you know the positioning. I’ve also found success with tank/support in dungeons using the same 0/30/0/20/20 build just with a couple major trait swaps.

However, it’s still a huge pain in the kitten for mobile fighting. Moving while auto-attacking = automatic miss on targets – for the full duration of the skill.

Flamethrower is really bad. I mean, it’s viable for PvE because basically anything is viable in PvE but it’s really not a good choice.

DPS on #1 is mediocre when you factor the burn in, and downright terrible without the burn (such as if you’re in a group or apply burn via some other source). Even at it’s best, it forces hybrid spec to get the most out of it, unlike other choices which let you stack berserkers for max damage or something else for more survivability.

#2 is too unreliable, #4 is just bad (a small burning field with no direct damage on a weapon that already has 50%+ burn uptime from the autoattack? kitten...) and #5 is too short ranged.

#3 is really the only good skill on it, short cooldown aoe pushback... no complains there.

On top of that, you lose out on your weapon stats and sigils while using the FT, which is really painful at high levels.

Personally, I use the flamethrower with elixirs constantly. But then again, I like a very defensive playstyle, and using a crit / condition damage-build (with some vitality and toughness from gear) allows me to use a bunch of on-crit traits like the burning and bleeding while I also can keep up practically constant swiftness and vigor. That plus the flamethrower’s blind and knockback plus the rifle’s knockback and root and I can kite like my life depends on it.

Am i the only one playing a Power/Crit/Condition Flamethrower build with Superior Rune of Strengh?

SameHH.1048:

coglin.1496:

Incorrect. The tool kit is great. You just have to know how to use it. Such as plant BoB then use the tool kit to pull them to you. With my condition build, the pry bar chained with static shot and concussion bomb, allow me to keep confusion up 100% of the time, with a minimum of 2 stack up to 5, depending on which ability is up in the rotation

I was talking about PvE and not PvP, the toolkit is useless in PvE but anyway this thread is about the flamethrower which is also kind of useless in PvE and PvP if you ask me.

I was talking about PvE. It is very useful. Just because you can’t or don’t use it doesn’t make it useless. The shield. pull. and solid stack of confusion are solid.

Rainydays.5368:

I want to make an engineer, and the only reason why is because I want to use the flamethrower and nothing else.

You will kitten yourself.

Your auto-attack ability is considerably weaker then from a real weapon, like a Rifle. I use FT in a 4-kit build, and by comparison my FT can hit around 1.8-2k. But, it takes more then 2sec per attack-cycle.
By comparison, my Rifle hits these same targets for 1.5-1.6k. But i can get more then 2 Hipshots out in the time it takes to do 1 Flame Jet. The strength lies in hitting multiple close together enemies. But the downside is its short range, and it tends to miss a lot due to some sort of bug.
Hip Shot also pierces targets, has 1000r by default and can trigger combofields. Outside of aoe-ing at close range to tag mobs, no contest.

Flame Blast hits for a decent amount, but its quite difficult to get it to hit. Ideally you want to hit with the roll through, and then the blast for max damage. Its not easy, and its also bugged and gets obstructed very easily (especially follwing an Air blast) and doesnt detonate when it hits solid objects.

Airblast is a good ability. A conal, aoe knockback that also reflects projectiles if you time it right. Good ability on a good cooldown, one of the main reasons anyone runs a FT kit in their arsenal.

Napalm, pretty lackluster. Serves as a combofield: Fire. And thats about its biggest strength. Damage-wise its very weak, and even in pve its not easy to keep mobs in it to take the full damage. Its usefullness is about how you can benefit from the combofield. Rifle Jump Shot gives you Fireshield for example. Massive cooldown (30s) for its very limited use.

Smoke Vent. Its only real strength is that you can use it while CCd. So even when stunned or knocked down you can do an aoe blind. Downsides, about everything else. Cooldown is pretty long, range is pretty short (melee essentially). By popular comparison, Grenadekit has 10s cooldown with 1200range and Bomb Kit has 25sec cd that pulses a few times for several blinds and acts as a combofield. Static Shot in pistol has 900range, deals dmg, applies confusion and bounces 3x to hit upwards to 4 targets or the same 2 targets twice on what i think was a 12 or 15s cooldown.

The toolbelt is 3x a 3s burn on hit. It is quite bugged however and will often consume stacks without applying the burn. Damagewise its not bad, i can get about 3.6k dmg from this on a 1min cd(in non-cond.dmg gear). Assuming i get all stacks and at full duration. As a cond. build obviously more, but i get much more dmg return from my Toolkit-toolbelt skill Trow Wrench. Which can net me upwards to 5 or even 6k dmg (+guarenteed combofield proc) on a 20s cooldown.

So all in all, Flamethrower isnt amazing. Fills its purpose in a number of builds, mostly as a utility skill (knockback, aoe blind, burn on hit, aoe mob tagging in events). But its not something you want to run 24/7 if you also do not want to kitten yourself.