Guild Wars 2

I want to discuss the reasons why neither (Launch) Personal Battering Ram nore Utility Goggles/Analyze can compete with this skill or in other words why these 2 Gadgets will still see little or no play:

1. Lowest cooldown so most SD procs. The additional damage on Launch PBR doesn’t make up for it so it is basically only the cripple. Analyze does no damage at all and the vulnerability stacks also don’t make up for that in any way.

2. No animation required. This is huge. It makes the cast free and you have to subtract the damage of an autoattack from Launch PBR which makes it even less of a competitor.

3. You never use the actual rifle turret but Utility Goggles/PBR just don’t offer anything either that you don’t already have. Another Launch that forces you into melee range? Meh. Fury for 10 sec and stunbreak? Meh.

In the end I would use PBR if LPBR would be instant cast without animation as surprise shot or if it would deal significantly more damage. Right now it isn’t worth it for the toolbelt and the actual utility slot doesn’t do much either.

Same for Utility Goggles. Some vulnerability stacks on that cooldown is just bad and passive traits do the job better. Same for 10 seconds of Fury, strongest part of the skill is the stunbreak but I would still get Slick Shoes instead of that.

In the end you just drop huge amounts of damage if you run PBR or Utility Goggles compared to Surprise Shot.

Sure if you want the absolute highest amount of procs of SD…then yeah riffle turret wins. 3 seconds longer for one less proc (turret detonation) you end up with a nice single target knockback.

I have to disagree with you completely on the use of utility goggles though. Instant cast 10 vuln immediately before your dps dump is very valuable. Further more…even if you don’t need the stunbreak that 10 seconds of fury combined with medkit 5 allows for almost constant up time of an extra 20% crit.

I currently am using goggles, pbr, and toolkit for my small roaming group. Does the job nicely. For pve i drop pbr and grab turret for the extra SD.

I disagree with you completely. The burst potential with PBR is higher, the CD is not much longer, and the added defensive trait gives you an extra tool to stay alive with. I have always used utility goggles so I have 0 idea where your going with that, that combined with sitting duck is 15 stacks of vun that makes your burst just absolutely kitten people.

Well a max dps engie runs around 3800 power 110 crit dmg and 85+ crit chance , stacked with sitting duck and analyze , you proc all of that mid flight before landing and watch the 15ks fly , but yeah the SS is by far superior…cant tell you how many times that lack of LOS bursted my opponent down while im running the opposite direction with 1k hp.
“Engie’s can shoot lightning from their kitten now, just when you thought they weren’t wacky enough GG Anet”…

I think it’s all subjective to the way you want to apply the burst. There are many ways you can run SD now, including with no ToolKit considering how our mobility options have increased for escape.

aydenunited.5729:

I think it’s all subjective to the way you want to apply the burst. There are many ways you can run SD now, including with no ToolKit considering how our mobility options have increased for escape.

There is always less viable options , that’ll never change.

galandor.1059:

The burst potential with PBR is higher

No, cause PBR wastes time while SS is INSTANT cast, so u can easily combine it with something like jumpshot for huge spike.

I’m not at 80 yet but I’ve been using PBR, Rifle Turret, and Rocket Boots. All pretty low cooldowns but do require some in-your-face movement. Its obviously a double damage setup, damage from the toolbet and damage from the lightning. Helps immensely with PvE for me at least since you have some good control and escape mechanisms.

TheOneNOnlyGeneralBama.9586:

aydenunited.5729:

I think it’s all subjective to the way you want to apply the burst. There are many ways you can run SD now, including with no ToolKit considering how our mobility options have increased for escape.

There is always less viable options , that’ll never change.

It more depends on the team you run with, since SD builds are typically very poor solo roamers unless they just happen to catch someone off-guard.

aydenunited.5729:

TheOneNOnlyGeneralBama.9586:

aydenunited.5729:

I think it’s all subjective to the way you want to apply the burst. There are many ways you can run SD now, including with no ToolKit considering how our mobility options have increased for escape.

There is always less viable options , that’ll never change.

It more depends on the team you run with, since SD builds are typically very poor solo roamers unless they just happen to catch someone off-guard.

Lol the best SD builds are hardly “poor roamers” , you have more than most zerker users would have. They’re usually running a zerker set-up in WvW roaming for a reason to top this off , only a true fool with lesser skills would run it solo if they desire to become a “bag”.

my set up :http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcUQFAUl0pyUX7SyF17IxoHdW0kG0D96X7+pAbB-j0xAYLACCQyrIasF3ioxqrxUuER1G8ioVLEwoFA-w

Even from here its still quite modular.

TheOneNOnlyGeneralBama.9586:

aydenunited.5729:

TheOneNOnlyGeneralBama.9586:

aydenunited.5729:

I think it’s all subjective to the way you want to apply the burst. There are many ways you can run SD now, including with no ToolKit considering how our mobility options have increased for escape.

There is always less viable options , that’ll never change.

It more depends on the team you run with, since SD builds are typically very poor solo roamers unless they just happen to catch someone off-guard.

Lol the best SD builds are hardly “poor roamers” , you have more than most zerker users would have. They’re usually running a zerker set-up in WvW roaming for a reason to top this off , only a true fool with lesser skills would run it solo if they desire to become a “bag”.

WTF are you talking about?

I use rifle turret, battering ram ad toolkit. NO complaints here. pump out ALOT of damage with a bit of survivability with ram and toolkit, still have 2 pieces of zerk exotic gear to get.

I recently rolled a new SD build I call the surfing sniper.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQFAUlIqicnpy3F1LJxIFkuzgekX/iXRFy/nCsF-TgAg0E1oqxVjpGZN2aGUA

By using the healing turret, you gain a water field that you can blast for area healing. SD builds like this already seem to carry quite a few blast finisher and they can be used to make up for the lack of survivability when used with a water field. This takes advantage of rifle turret as the turret itself can be used for another area heal as well.

As for the rocket boots, they take the place of a more reliable stun breaker for the added utility. Although similar to the ram in that you have to be in melee range for the kick, you can then use the boots to blast your water field and retreat. Melee range shouldn’t be a problem for you if you are bringing the toolkit. I mean you might as well be using the magnet + prybar since you have them.

to OP if your only looking at damage then that may be right.

But I think you miss the utility involve with pbr / goggles.

pbr gets you a ranger cripple that is easy to hit with, and a great low CD knock back to pair with overcharge shot for chain CC’ing or interupting skills.

With goggles you get a stun break paired with 10s of blind immunity, which is huge with all the blind spam builds right now. While the 10 stacks of vuln might not be a huge boon for you over the dps from RT, it does increase the dps of other players, and pets by 10% which is not shabby at all, with a 1200 range. Not even talking about the fury.

With RT I think your also missing a trick. You can deploy and detonate rifle on top of a water or fire field, inbetween TB cool downs, to can a blast, and an extra SD.

If you time it right you can actually let the turret dps a bit 2-3 seconds before you blast it as well in 1 V 1 and with traiting that can get you a knock back

I still use both goggles and rifle turret on my SD build, but it’s a glass canon variety, so it might not be the best choice for a non-glass canon.

I was trying to toy around with rocket turret or rocket boots since the change, but I still find toolkit to be my preference. The burst won’t work as well if I have 2 toolbelt skills both with cast times… analyze and surprise shot are both instant, so it can hit both fast and hard.