Is Flamethrower/Elixer Gun truly viable?
If you’re truly talking only Fractals and Dungeons, I would probably not spend points on Invigorating Speed and Speedy Kits. These are mainly useful in WvW where you need to keep up with the Zerg or cover large amounts of territory quickly. Put the points in Alchemy or Inventions and tank up!
And, again, if only focusing on Fractals and Dungeons, I’d probably select something other than Berzerker Armor. Maybe Carrior or Rabid….
Nades is the best damage you will get as an Engineer.
Additionally, Grenades are far better in PvE than in PvP due to the cast time and slow travel combo-ing with lag to cause misses (at least for me playing from Aus).
FT/EG is more of a PvP combination when running condition gear and definitely requires exploiting combo fields/finishers to achieve maximum potential.
Anything is viable in PvE however, ultimately the old content is easy and you don’t need to be totally maxed out for damage to get by. I would suggest just mucking about with everything and sticking with something you enjoy.
The more complex combinations will be the most fulfilling in the long run in my opinion.
No…..
Because of retaliation and its kitten damage.
One question, what about pure-EG builds? Just from looking at the traits, it’d seem to me that being able to equip another elixir works really well if you’re already going deep into Alchemy?
The strength of heart to face oneself has been made manifest. The persona Carighan has appeared.
One question, what about pure-EG builds? Just from looking at the traits, it’d seem to me that being able to equip another elixir works really well if you’re already going deep into Alchemy?
They are good.
Going heavy alchemy is really solid for PvP, picking up 2 elixirs and the EG will make for a really solid defensive build, especially since everyone is running conditions now that people are discovering toughness is so strong. (Rabid being the best stats in sPvP with Knights being trash thanks to Vit instead of Tough).
to answer your questions, yes it’s very viable and no pugs won’t care as long as you can survive. the only issue with the FT build is that you will not do as well on bosses with retaliation such as the hotw p1 boss or the charr fractal boss. luckily these bosses are few and far between and you can always swap to a SD build by changing a trait and some utilities to deal with them. bring a rifle.
i also don’t like med kit at all and much prefer the healing turret but that’s just me.
a pure EG build will do terrible damage.
Anything will work really for PvE, its all pretty easy. However the meta right now for dungeons is to stack as much damage as possible and just faceroll through dungeons. For this, Engis are actually really good as they bring very high dps (full zerker with nades, just learn to dodge) while being the only class that can stack and maintain 20+ stacks of vuln.
Also, the rotations on the thing look hellish especially since I don’t really understand how combo fields work and the battle system seems too hectic with to much effects and crap going on on screen for me to reliably decipher when I should use a skill in coordination with a teammate :-/
It’s really a lot simpler than it sounds.
My build mainly utilizes the Fire field from your Napalm, which you’ll be using to stack Might with Blast finishers. The skills with Blast finishers are Magnetic Inversion, Rocket Boots, and Acid Bomb. If you look at the rotation, you’ll see the order in which you’re supposed to use these skills. With the Healing Turret, you can stack up to 15 Might between your Blast finishers and Altruism runes. You’ll want to detonate the Healing Turret first, though, followed by Magnetic Inversion and Acid Bomb within Napalm and then using Rocket Boots passing through it for the final Area Might.
I dislike the idea of video guides because when traits change I have to make a whole new video (which happened last time I did it), but if you’d like to see this rotation in action I could see about recording it for you so it makes more sense.
But of course this build is viable. Whoever told you the Grenade Kit’s damage is subpar was definitely wrong, but the FT/EG hybrid is perfectly suited for any dungeon path or fractal. I used this build and its previous versions to get my own Dungeon Master title. And I run dungeons for my guildies as often as I have time to.
Just don’t expect to enter into a DPS race with Axe Warriors. That’s not the point of this build.
[EG] Ethereal Guardians
If you’re truly talking only Fractals and Dungeons, I would probably not spend points on Invigorating Speed and Speedy Kits. These are mainly useful in WvW where you need to keep up with the Zerg or cover large amounts of territory quickly. Put the points in Alchemy or Inventions and tank up!
The point of running Speedy Kits is to trigger Invigorating Speed, which gives you Vigor. And Vigor is very important for higher end fractals where dodging is literally the only thing that keeps you alive.
It’s just as important for many dungeons, including both Arah and CoE.
And, again, if only focusing on Fractals and Dungeons, I’d probably select something other than Berzerker Armor. Maybe Carrior or Rabid….
Why do you think this is a superior choice? PvE is about stacking as much damage as you can survive with. Carrion or Rabid are entirely too defensive, and they’re Condition Damage insignias.
[EG] Ethereal Guardians
Rampager would be the correct choice for more condition-based PvE setups.
The strength of heart to face oneself has been made manifest. The persona Carighan has appeared.
I hear even with Nades the Engi’s DPS is subpar in PvE so I’m looking for a bit more utility/support.
This isn’t true. Some builds are competitive DSP. Grenades/SD is one, Rifle/SD is another. Bombs/SD is higher if the group doesn’t rely on you applying Vulnerability. We can match other classes/builds in DPS aside from a very few that are circumstantially very high.
FT has lower output but it has it’s strengths also. If you’re mindful of your DPS and try to maximize it you will do pretty good.
Blood~
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance”
(edited by Bloodgruve.6038)
A problem I find when trying to play with the flamethrower kit is that it punishes you as soon as you switch out of it, you will start to lose might stacks really fast etc, which will take some time to build back up once you switch back. This leads me to an hgh build with elixirs instead of other utility skills. That works better but I think the survivability with the flamerthrower is a bit wonky, you will find yourselves having to run around a lot not doing any damage while just trying to survive for long stretches of time.
While with the grenades you can get higher damage, more utility (using elixir gun and rocket boots) along with stacking 15-20 stacks of might, keeping up 15+ stacks of bleed, perma poison and doing decent normal damage too. That is while using rampager gear. And with the traits such as regenerating backpack together with elixir gun and centaur runes/medikit I never find myself in trouble at any point in any encounters.
Juggernaut should effect Elixir Gun too, that would make the swapping so much less punishing.
And it’s not like Elixir Gun can’t use a serious boost as it is!
Wiggely, wobbely and other wombaty wabbity creatures…
Juggernaut should effect Elixir Gun too, that would make the swapping so much less punishing.
And it’s not like Elixir Gun can’t use a serious boost as it is!
I’d like to see the Elixir Gun get boosted a bit because I’ve always liked it and currently it’s the only kit that can’t really be a good primary weapon.
On the other hand, it does still clobber most of our non-kit utility skill options once you’ve gone to the considerable trouble of really learning how to use it so maybe it is balanced about how it’s supposed to be. The number of useful features it already packs is impressive, and its only real problem is that only Acid Bomb does high damage.
At any rate, the EG/FT build is absolutely viable for dungeons, especially if you’re using the real definition of the word “viable.” Just don’t use the Flamethrower autoattack on anything with retaliation. (It’s not like you ever really have to autoattack much with a multikit build anyway.)
Guardian, Engineer
[SIC] Strident Iconoclast – BP
[SIC] Strident Iconoclast – BP