Guild Wars 2

Hello.
I got a grenade build, and was wondering if I should use Incendiary Powder vs Shrapnel. I was using Incendiary Powder, but since I got about 4 more ways of applying bleeds on a target, and bleeds stack, I thought Shrapnel might add more dmg than Incendiary Powder.
Which one should I use?

If only using explosives, Shrapnel is better dps.
Shrapnel applies a 12s bleed with no internal cooldown, while Incendiary Powder applies a 2s burn on a 3s ICD. With good condition damage, the 12s bleed will do more than the 2s burn over the duration. And since it doesn’t have an ICD and isn’t reliant on crits it can add on a lot more damage.
Incendiary Powder is for when you don’t use explosives.

Thanks a lot man

Hmm, and now that I remember it, with 30 in Explosives you get 30% condition duration, which helps out the bleed substantially but only helps the burn if you apply it by other means as well.

The burn proc is insane. IIRC one second of burning is like one second of 6 bleeds,

Really it depends on what you’re gonna do with the build. If you’re just gonna spam grenades at mobs in a condi build shrapnel is probably better. However, in PVP where diversity of conditions and “burst” conditions are far better than lengthy bleeds, incendiary is far far better.

10% extra condi duration in addition to the 30% from the explosives tree = 3 second burn proc as well (probably a bug). Burning is absolutely the best condition in the game. I almost never make a build, power or condis, without incendiary powder.

Incendary Powder’s effectiveness is limited as it has a 3s internal cooldown for a 2s burn. That’s why it requires a source of extra burning to really be effective. Without that burning is only in place at most 2/3 of the time (or less depending on how frequently you crit).

10% extra condi duration in addition to the 30% from the explosives tree makes it a 3 second burn. I’ve tested it repeatedly for months, that’s the way it works.

IMO it’s far better than shrapnel in all respects except for AOE spam, which is only effective in PvE and WvW.

Ostricheggs.3742:

10% extra condi duration in addition to the 30% from the explosives tree makes it a 3 second burn. I’ve tested it repeatedly for months, that’s the way it works.

IMO it’s far better than shrapnel in all respects except for AOE spam, which is only effective in PvE and WvW.

youve just changed my mind… ive been using incendiary powder for as long as i can remember, but i hadnt really thought about the icd, and pve/dungeons and wvw are my bread and butter.

ive known about both traits for a long time but i only just started thinking about it after doing a dungeon run with 4 guardians and my engi, when i swapped the trait just cuz i figured they could easily keep burning on all the time but have few bleeds.

while burning is definitely the strongest unmodified condition, bleeds scale a lot better and i have not insignificant condi damage from rampager armor and celestial trinkets. condi necros (and other bleed stackers…? rampager engi seems to be getting popular ish…) are rare enough in my social encounters that i dont feel like ill be stepping on any toes switching over, and guards are all too common (and needed) in dungeons and will often perma burn with or without me helping.

Shrapnel would be better if you think you’ll have a high uptime on burn anyway—for example, if you are conditions for a dungeon with grenades and bombs, or if you’ve got a couple of guardians, or if an ele is laying down a lot of burning, etc…

If you don’t have a significant other source of burning, or if you’re playing PvP or small-squad WvW, incendiary powder is way better.

Don’t forget another thing guys :

Incendiary powder proc of ANY attack, shrapnel only proc from Grenades and bombs.

Like OstrichEggs said →

I use Shrapnel for PvE, and sometimes in WvW. Target are more static, you hit more people, you use more grenade.

I use Incendiary power for WvW roaming and PvP. This trait is more for small fights, where it will outdamage Shrapnel really bad. It proc from any attack, and I don’t spam grenade often during a fight, I use everything I have. So IP will proc more often.

Ostricheggs.3742:

10% extra condi duration in addition to the 30% from the explosives tree makes it a 3 second burn. I’ve tested it repeatedly for months, that’s the way it works.

IMO it’s far better than shrapnel in all respects except for AOE spam, which is only effective in PvE and WvW.

I need to retest it, I actually came to the opposite conclusion a couple days ago. I also was mostly testing the Condi Duration bugs to see what was working. I was testing it with Sigil of Smoldering then 2/6 Baelfire though so I had 40%, 45%, and 55% totals. Unfortunately Nightmare isn’t it’s +20% self anymore due to the bugs so I didn’t really test the 50% again. That used to be the mark where it got the extra time. Maybe I was really messing something up that day, hmm.

As to the topic, Shrapnel really needs a constant application to be effective while Incendiary Powder can be much more immediately effective. I only use Shrapnel in PvE like situations where I’m using both Grenades and Bombs to proc the bleeds. Incendiary Powder requires crit to fuel it though, but most of our builds have crit just because of this trait.

Ayestes →

Are lich rune still +20%? Did you get to test it?

Lyssa, Lich, and Nightmare are broken. That’s the main conclusion I came up with. Rare Veggie Pizza works though.