Experimenting with modified ammunition, bombs and elixir gun for a wide amount of conditions to keep on enemies. Can use eagle or ogre runes instead of scholar if money is tight. P/P instead of shield if you would rather have another utility than elixir gun, but the stun break is nice and acid bomb is nice damage and a skill to get out of dangerous situations.
For the explosives trait line, I’m really not sure if I want incendiary powder over explosive powder or short fuse, any advice for that anyone?
If this is for PvE I’d suggest a build like this 30/30/0/10/0. Good damage and It stacks Might and Vulnerability quite well for improved group damage. I can easily maintain 12 stacks of might and 18 stacks of vulnerability. The fire field/blast setup takes a little practice but its not hard when you get the hang of it. 6x blasts and and Water or Smoke fields are available also. Its flexible to optimize bombs or grenades. Pistol isn’t used much but Shield’s blast is needed.
I’m not aware of any really strong pistol only builds for PvE, DPS wise.
Blood~
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance”
say you’re running a power bomb kit build 25/10/0/10/25. if you go 30 into firearms, you lose 25% crit damage as well as the enduring damage trait which is basically 5 conditions up at all times when you compare it to modified ammo. is target the maimed and the extra crit chance worth the static discharge and crit damage loss? (also perma swiftness which i can’t live without)
You forget 300 Precision as well as 300 Condition Damage. So 300 Precision is 14% crit chance + around 10-20% damage from Modified Ammunition + 300 condition damage which we make liberal use of with bleeds and poison (and burn and confusion, depends what we use with the grenades) + 5% damage is the enemy is bleeding + 10% crit when the enemy is under 50% HP.
In exchange we get 30% crit damage and 30% toolbelt recharge with 10% more damage if our endurance is full. But yes, Tools is darn gosh practical. In one trait line we take care of our Swiftness and Endurance needs. There is a lack of a master trait if we’re not going SD though.
is target the maimed and the extra crit chance worth the static discharge and crit damage loss?
Yes.
A Bomb Kit Engineer with 30 Explosives eating Koi Cake maintains 3 conditions: burning, bleeding, and vulnerability. That’s a flat 6% increase from Modified Ammunition. Target The Maimed gives another 5%. So even taking no other conditions into consideration (i.e., confusion, crippled, immobilized, poison, blind) you’re already getting a permanent 11% damage increase just spamming #1 and #2 (when it comes up) as a bomber. Period. All the time. 11%. No Endurance required.
It’s also important to identify that taking 30 Firearms gives you room to take both Fireforged Trigger and Sitting Duck. You get the extra vulnerability stacks and more Acid Bombs per minute. Even more direct damage over 25 Tools.
You lose out on some Critical Damage, yes. But with how many conditions the Engineer has access to, I’ll take a potential 24% damage increase over 25% Critical Damage—16% of which a 30/30 Engineer has regular access to.
