Guild Wars 2

Don’t want to hog the forum, but I am the new kid with a lot of “head scratchers”

1) Nades/Bombs force tradeoffs in Explosives. Which do you skip: forceful explosions or shrapnel?

2) Why take backpack regen and speedy kits instead of power shoes and elixir infused bombs? Inventions focus on healing power and toughness is also better than +boon if you are not taking HGH right?

3) How do you map to manage so many kit swaps?

4) Condition removal seems the bane of the nade/bomb engie. For group support and blast based combos, I would want healing turret, but the only real way to remove enough conditions seems to be the med kit’s antidote. Do I need to drop elixir gun for an elixir? That would be disappointing (especially given the long cooldowns).

5) How are you balancing power and crit chance with condition damage? We have a lot of conditions that come on crit and I could argue that a blend of all three stats beats focusing on one. Is that bad theorycraft? How do you manage the balance with nades/bombs/elixir?

6) Do elixir infused bombs have an internal cooldown that is hidden? Otherwise, using bomb I would be able to heal 2x a second right?

1) Bombs, take Forceful Explosions. Grenades, take Shrapnel (we used to take IP before Dec 10).

2) You’re probably looking at older builds. The Dec 10 patch changed those skills. Power Shoes only just changed to give us the speed boost out of combat. Before that, Speedy Kits (previously on a 5 sec CD) was a better way to maintain speed, as well as gain increase to crit damage via the line. Also, Elixir Infused Bombs were buffed.

3) Huh? Key mapping? I put my utilities on my extra mouse buttons so I can quickly swap while using 1-5 with my left hand.

4) Your statement is correct. Outside of 409 elixirs, our condition removal is weak. HT remains our best tool, blasting it with shield, BoB, detonate, etc. Antidote isn’t that great due to only removing 1 condition at a time. EG is great for cleansing allies with Fumigate but sadly it doesn’t work on us.

5) Grenades and Bombs are the only hybrid kits, FT definitely being a power kit, not conditions. It’s up to your personal preference. Some people want big numbers from bomb autoattack and BoB, others use both nades & bombs with Rampager gear for a mix. Experiment. But now that Modified Ammunition (Firearms XI) affects all attacks, any extra conditions translate to a straight damage boost. So even in Zerker gear, those bleeds from crit = +2% damage output.

6) No ICD on Elixir Infused Bombs. They’re designed to offer small but consistent aoe heals. And now they’re better. Enjoy.

Bombsaway.7198:

Don’t want to hog the forum, but I am the new kid with a lot of “head scratchers”

1) Nades/Bombs force tradeoffs in Explosives. Which do you skip: forceful explosions or shrapnel?

2) Why take backpack regen and speedy kits instead of power shoes and elixir infused bombs? Inventions focus on healing power and toughness is also better than +boon if you are not taking HGH right?

3) How do you map to manage so many kit swaps?

4) Condition removal seems the bane of the nade/bomb engie. For group support and blast based combos, I would want healing turret, but the only real way to remove enough conditions seems to be the med kit’s antidote. Do I need to drop elixir gun for an elixir? That would be disappointing (especially given the long cooldowns).

5) How are you balancing power and crit chance with condition damage? We have a lot of conditions that come on crit and I could argue that a blend of all three stats beats focusing on one. Is that bad theorycraft? How do you manage the balance with nades/bombs/elixir?

6) Do elixir infused bombs have an internal cooldown that is hidden? Otherwise, using bomb I would be able to heal 2x a second right?

Forceful explosions and shrapnel are both good. I usually use forceful explosions, but I’ve been trying shrapnel recently. Shrapnel raises your dps somewhat, forceful explosions is really only for landing fire bomb in a WvW condition build. But landing fire bomb is huge. It’s up to you.

I’ve been taking power shoes over speedy kits recently. I don’t miss the 8% much, and the stats are better for min/maxing than CD reduction and crit damage. Elixir infused bombs is not something I’m willing to give up BR for. In most roaming WvW situations, you’ll use bombs rather rarely.

Not sure what to suggest for mapping. Find something that you know will work well and then stick to it.

Healing turret is much better condition removal than medkit. Drop antidote only removes one condition compared to HT’s two, on the same cooldown. Yes, condition removal is a major weakness of a three-kit engineer build. I’d recommend using a giver’s weapon and +10% condition duration focusing crystal to get to +50%, then using -condi duration food on yourself to somewhat mitigate this.

There is no internal cooldown on EIB. However, there is a slight aftercast. I believe you can drop about five bombs in four seconds. Again, I wouldn’t depend on EIB for much healing in a WvW build unless you really commit to it as a soldier’s/cleric’s frontliner, 10/0/30/30/0.

1. if you use bombs, get forceful explosives. if only grenades, get shrapnel.

2. backpack regen is one of the best passive healing abilities in the game. combine it with protection injection in the same tree and it helps you survive a lot. speedy kits is for mobility. it also gives vigor if you take invigorating speed. the inventions tree doesn’t give as much survivability as the alchemy tree but it can be useful if you decide to go bunker.

3. practice. waaaay back in the day i used to just run triple elixir + grenades. it was mindless and easy. making the transition to bomb/grenade and bomb/grenade/eg was difficult at first but now it’s like second nature. you can practice in dungeons or against the AI in the heart of the mists.

4. healing turret removes 2 conditions if you overcharge. it’s our best condition removal heal skill. elixir gun 5 removes one condition if you are in the aoe when it impacts. elixir gun is a great kit. i try to always have it on my bars.

5. first you decide whether you want to be a condition or power engi. both sets of gear (rabid/zerk) have precision on them. if you decide to be both, i recommend a mix of zerker/celestial gear. precision is way more important for a power build than a condition build so if you decide to go condition, you can trade off rabid gear for dire.

6. no cooldown for elixir bombs.