Guild Wars 2

I am completely aware that in the current situation this trait is needed to keep engi competitive in PvP but believe me when I say it is actually greatly reducing build variety and damaging our class.

Basically what it does is throw burn on everything. This allows for the decent poking damage that engi needs because they have a lot of animations/stuff to do and cannot continuously autoattack like many other classes. However it damages other burning sources of which engi actually has a lot. Stuff that gets hit include:

• Flamethrower
• Bomb Kit
• Rocket Boots
• Pistol Offhand

Sure, you can still play all this somehow but in the end it is very underpresented in the current variety of builds because IP does the job (better). It allows to burn with grenades on 1500 range. It allows to make your burn impossible to dodge, you get the idea.

What I suggest is to nerf this trait and buff other aspects of engi. I would like to see this trait becoming similiar to Ranger’s Opening Strike mechanic. Once you are out of combat you gain this buff, maybe just use FTs toolbelt skill, allowing your next 3 attacks to inflict 3s of burning each. It doesn’t refresh until you leave combat again.

Yes this is a nerf because if your opponent cleanses it and you don’t have any other burn equipped you basically lack this condition (well there is still rune of balthazar). This should encourage actually running other burn sources in your build, engi has plenty. If at the end of the day this leaves engi too weak then I am all for more buffs but IP ruins so much of the classes variety, this has to be done!

IMO, kits are what are reducing build diversity, specifically grenades. The damage they bring is just too good to pass up in most cases and demands 6 points in a trait line simply because if not, you’re just hindering yourself. In consequence, kits are the standard that all other utility skills are compared to, and frankly, most don’t measure up. For example, if I want a good stunbreak, why would I take something like Goggles over Elixir Gun? Egun comes with a stunbreak and so much more. I mean, conditions are a huge weakness for most engineer builds, but you still don’t see people swapping out one of their kits for Elixir C.

Incendiary Powder is good, but it’s really just a side effect of the fact that a majority of builds already run 6 into Explosives for grenades.

What would increase build diversity even more than nerfing kits or incendiary powder would be to buff the other utilites(*cough*gadgets*cough*) so that they didn’t pale in comparison to Tool Kit and Grenade Kit.

I don’t think you could ever buff gadgets to the point where someone would consider them over kits. We lack dual weapon wielding and that automatically requires you equip one kit just to cycle through a rotation.

As for incendiary powder, I think you’re overestimating its value. It hits only one target and it has a 10s cooldown. In zerg fights, it has negligible overall effect in comparison to someone who goes grenadier with 10% dmg buff to explosions or short fuse to spam out poison, blindness, and chill more often, which is better for overall team play. More important than incendiary powder is putting 6 points into power, which gives you a 30% increase in condition duration. Stack that with food buffs and other runes, it helps make your conditions last longer and provide an easier fight for you and your team mates.

It might be different for people that prefer pure PvP or roaming in WvW, but when I team play it’s all about contribution and I get the most bang for my buck in the primary stat bonuses and major traits like grenadier. Those are the two big sellers, most of the minor and major skills are just putting the cherry on top, but by no means dictate build orientation. So I don’t think it needs to be adjusted per say, you just got to pick the most suitable bonuses to your play style amongst the choices you’re given.

^ That. I prefer bomb kit for the control it allows you over nades. Plus incendiary powder isn’t always necessary.
With majority of engineers running either celestial rifle or Grenade/TK double kit condi, IC is around a lot. Thing is people don’t branch out and prefer to run builds that are common and easy to play.

I am mainly talking about PvP here that is now WvW.

Are turret builds taking IP? Everyone complains as if turrets are the “most popular” build?

no turrets dont take IP, and yes turrets are prolly the most popular build among people who dont main engi. its annoying and popular because ai wins you 1v1s for free, and when you play against people who dont know any better thats the same thing as a free game win.

among people who are a bit more skilled at playing engi, IP is pretty much required — any nades build (condi, cele, and even pure power builds) benefits greatly from the guaranteed additional single target dps in duels. bomb builds end up wanting to go deep in explosives as well, and dont need IP quite as much especially as condi (p/p variants) due to fire bomb, but its still one of the best traits in the line and a good grandmaster for a bomb oriented build without nades… just doesnt exist. SD builds are about the only other build set that doesnt take IP, and they struggle with survivability (and therefore viability). HGH can easily take IP, especially since nades variants arent bad, but isnt common since the builds have to forgo toolkit for an elixir.

I suppose if they had a buff pop up on your engineer that showed that your next strike would burn that wouldnt be to bad just have the buff pop up with a 10 sec refresh after the attack is used up that way you can actually see when they are going to be able to burn you. Though i would like to see some traits in other lines that apply electric shocks for procs that would be cool ..like a single target one for burst sd is just kinda meh atm