Guild Wars 2

I’m having a big problem with Stun Breakers.

Elixir U either removes my endurance or makes me take more damage, making it much less useful as a defensive skill (or offensive, for that matter.)

Everything else has a long recharge time as well.

What do you use?

Elixir U is a terrible stunbreaker, seriously ignore it. It’s a stunbreaker that gives you 1 of 2 negative effects that screws you over regardless so it’s not worth taking.

Slick Shoes (toolbelt)
Thumper Turret (toolbelt)
Elixir Gun (toolbelt)
Elixir S
Utility Goggles

Yeah. These, for the most part, are marginal, with the exception of the elixir gun. Some dovetail nicely with other builds, like Utility Goggles with SD builds, but that’s about it unless you are running a bowling ball build or a turret/tank build.

Firstly, Elixir U is a great skill and very worthwhile as a stun break (hint: vigor & protection), the problems folks have with it are “learning to play” issues they’ll eventually outgrow. Elixir U is simply a more advanced skill requiring more advanced knowledge of the class.

Secondly, even in its severely weakened state, Kit Refinement gives you the option to use Tool Kit equipping as a stun break since it procs Super Speed which is in fact a stun breaker. Just one extra option for a stun break even if the traits other benefits are few and far between.

Edit: Note – if you only use one kit, and that kit is Tool Kit, proper play style will render a stun break every 20 second via Kit Refinement.

I use super speed. Because it’s an AMAZING way to kill people in sPvP (turn it on, run into them, hit grenade barrage, huehuehuehue), especially when you use slick shoes to make sure they stay put.

Ignore Elixir U and Thumper Turret as Stunbreakers. These abilities are simply not designed to actually facilitate that effect. This has nothing to do with trying to work around their broken mechanics, but simply poor design.

If you happen to be using either of these two abilities, or even both, you will still want to get a viable Stunbreaker.

Terrahero.9358:

Ignore Elixir U and Thumper Turret as Stunbreakers. These abilities are simply not designed to actually facilitate that effect. This has nothing to do with trying to work around their broken mechanics, but simply poor design.

If you happen to be using either of these two abilities, or even both, you will still want to get a viable Stunbreaker.

On the contrary. Elixir U and Rumble are not only good choices for the right build, but also have great synergy in the right build.

Adrenaline Pump + Protection Injection + Elixir U = a net of 16% less direct damage in a Frenzy proc. and the ability to restore 10% of Endurance on tool belt activation in a Haste proc.; tool belt skills you can activate 50% faster thanks to Quickness.

Rumble is a blast finisher attached to two other blast finishers. If used in conjunction with the Elixir U combo field you can stack up Retaliation off a Wall of Reflection proc. or Stealth off of a Smoke Screen proc. Used in a Bomb Kit Rifle Build it becomes even more potent.

Technical comprehension along with practice turns what some see as bad skills into practical combat strategies few have seen often enough to defend against. This is what makes the Engineer a very entertaining class to try to master.

Apparently I’m the only person left that still uses elixir S for their stunbreaker lol

Obscure One.4357:

Kit Refinement gives you the option to use Tool Kit equipping as a stun break since it procs Super Speed which is in fact a stun breaker. Just one extra option for a stun break even if the traits other benefits are few and far between.

These 2 seconds aren’t equal to the 5 sec tool belt skill. Furthermore, these 2 second also do not break stuns.

Obscure One.4357:

….requiring more advanced knowledge of the class

Funny – Same words back to you with your KR and stun breaker.

Forestnator.6298:

These 2 seconds aren’t equal to the 5 sec tool belt skill. Furthermore, these 2 second also do not break stuns.

It appears it no longer breaks stun. When I tested this on patch day it did in fact brake stun, though I just tested it now and it does not.

Looks like I wont be using that option in future builds.

Edit:
Just slid around the YouTubes to make sure I wasn’t horribly mistaken, but it appears I’m not the only one that noted this: http://youtu.be/4re8YqmOhuU?t=2m30s

Obscure One.4357:

Forestnator.6298:

These 2 seconds aren’t equal to the 5 sec tool belt skill. Furthermore, these 2 second also do not break stuns.

It appears it no longer breaks stun. When I tested this on patch day it did in fact brake stun, though I just tested it now and it does not.

Looks like I wont be using that option in future builds.

Edit:
Just slid around the YouTubes to make sure I wasn’t horribly mistaken, but it appears I’m not the only one that noted this: http://youtu.be/4re8YqmOhuU?t=2m30s

For your honor: I checked it also in the first hours and it seemed to work as a stun breaker. But I rechecked it later the patch day and it didn’t. I was confused. Maybe it was stealth changed with the first hotfix.

With protection and the trait that mitigates 20% damage when you’re knocked down/stunned, I’ve opted to try builds without a stunbreaker. I’ll either have flamethrower, bomb kit, tool kit as utilities, or flamethrower, bomb kit, and rocket boots. With either setup I just take the 53% less damage when disabled, then either rocket away or block the opponent’s burst. I also usually have either a smoke bomb, big ol’ bomb, flamethrower knockback, or flamethrower blind ready to spam to avoid damage and heal up safely.

It’s: 1-1*(1-0,33)*(1-0,2) = 0,472 —> 47,2% less damage not 53% – just for the maths. But the idea stays the same.

Elixir R was my favorite stun breaker before they thoroughly destroyed it like a patch ago or so. Now it takes half a second to cast and only refills your endurance. Hell, even the animation is broken when you use it while moving. It’s like somebody got bored in the middle of reworking it and walked off to get an egg roll.

With the number of stun heavy builds I have simply been running with stun reduction food in WvW and -20 trait in spvp. One stun break usually wont help me much when I get caught in a hammer train. Usually my only hope is to get out of there in a jiffy.

thumper is good if you pair it with something else. Such as thumper + rocket boots. Which gives you 2 blasts and a nice bit of dps as well.

it has it’s uses, espeically in WvW where with a field those 2 blasts can be 3k healing, 6 might stacks, swiftness, aoe weakness …