Guild Wars 2

Sylentir.8913:

However, have you considered the fact that the FT attacks at a much more rapid rate than the guardian staff? As a result, when using traits, food, or sigils that proc on crit with no ICD, you will get far more procs than a guardian. Additionally, even if they do have an ICD, you are much more likely to maintain perfect uptime/downtime ratios simply because more frequent attacks mean more chances to proc it while it’s off cooldown.

Absolutely a great point. Obviously with more targets involved gap becomes negligible but single target there would be a definite difference.

Sylentir.8913:

The only guardian trait capable of improving the staff is a 20% cooldown reduction, while engineers get many more.

Actually, this is untrue, Guardians have a multitude of traits which boost their overall damage, just as the Engineer does, which is why I am making the point that this is negligible.

Phineas Poe.3018:

hydeaut.1758:

And compare your screenshot with the one in the OP here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/PvE-Dungeon-Speedrun-Zerk-Build/first

Why? This thread isn’t about how the Flamethrower stacks up to other kits, and I would never say that the Flamethrower does as much damage as the Bomb Kit in the first place.

It is actually extremely relevant as you are basing your argument on an opinion that the flamethrower does excellent damage, thus is fine.
The major flaw in that argument, as revealed here, is that you are not making a comparison, simply stating that totally maxed out the damage is great on one skill.
Given another class (or even in this case a better kit) is running the same extreme DPS build, the damage numbers are significantly higher.
Obviously there must be some offset as bombs are shorter range, thus should hit harder, but I would contend that the gap is too large.
Give the Flamethrower a bit more range, and we are talking business.

Brew Pinch.5731:

It is actually extremely relevant as you are basing your argument on an opinion that the flamethrower does excellent damage, thus is fine.

I’m basing my argument on an opinion that the Flamethrower does excellent damage and is thus fine because of all the defensive strengths it has as well. That’s the thing you continually cut out of my posts. You can’t just keep looking at Flame Jet and say it doesn’t do as much as the Bomb Kit—therefore the FT needs buffs.

I am so sick and tired of reading forum posts where people believe that damage and DPS is everything and refuse to take into consideration everything the Flamethrower offers defensively. You can’t drop a Smoke Bomb while stunned. You actually have to take a Grandmaster trait, Autodefense Bomb Dispenser. It makes it so you drop a Smoke Bomb once every 30 seconds when you’re disabled, which is a pretty awful comparison to Smoke Vent which can be activated every 16 seconds with Fireforged Trigger at the precise moment you may actually need it.

So while you may do superior damage with a 25/20/0/0/25 or 20/25/0/0/25 Bomb Kit build, you will have paper plates for armor and be 100% reliant on Guardians and Mesmers keeping you alive just as Axe Warriors do.

My FT/EG build is instead a balanced setup that offers (1) more health (2) more armor (3) more group condition removal and (4) more area boons at a cost of doing a little less DPS. And that’s a move I’ll make any day of the week. As have thousands of others.

If you think my build isn’t fine, or if you don’t think the Flamethrower is fine, then don’t use it. Simple as that.

Brew Pinch.5731:

The major flaw in that argument, as revealed here, is that you are not making a comparison, simply stating that totally maxed out the damage is great on one skill.

Oh please. I said that Flame Jet regularly climbs over 6K in DPS gear to establish how incorrect most players’ assumptions of the Flamethrower were. Last I checked 3K DPS was not “bad.”

You responded in kind by bragging how much your Warlock does on the Mesmer, citing it does over 10K damage. Phantasmal Warlock has a base 18 second cooldown and only attacks once every six seconds; kind of an unfair comparison to an auto-attack.

So I responded by saying that Flame Blast does similar damage … on an untraited 6 second cooldown. So you turn around and say there’s a flaw in my argument? What does that even mean?

What do you even want? You asked for evidence. I gave it to you. I believe the job on my end is complete at this point.