Guild Wars 2

So, the change is here, and it’s going to stay at least for a while. Has a concensus formed up yet about what the proper use for grenadiers is now? Or what build to switch them to?

I tried mine a bit hunting Karka. Switching to shrapnel, he did get some damage back, unfortunately, it does seem we really need to go for condition damage to make use of it. So, is it time to go to Twilight arbor, or is there another way to deal with the new game?

Are you stuck on using grenades? I’d give some other kits a shot. I enjoy TANKCAT quite a bit.

Ponder.3647:

Are you stuck on using grenades? I’d give some other kits a shot. I enjoy TANKCAT quite a bit.

Probably because they still dwarf the damage of everything else we have. Not to mention with the might stacking we can do they were actually kind of buffed

I heard of some people using grenades for AOE and rifle + static discharge for single target. I haven’t tried it out myself or actually seen its viability.

The vulnerability and bleeds you’ll apply via Shrapnel will still outdamage all other options in the long term.

Unless you’re hitting bleed stack cap, at which point I’d look at tool kit or rifle for your auto needs until shrapnel grenade comes off cooldown.

just tried p/p (for air + fire sigils) grenadier with something like 30/15/0/0/25… x / rifle turret / grenades… x = usually elixir r in dungeons, toolkit in worldmap and wvw.

would switch to shield cuz offhand pistol is crap, but i felt like i was doing fine sustained damage and quite a bit of frontloaded burst. nothing beats a barrage that procs air, fire, and discharge. and it should get both sigils almost every time if the other grenades dont.

but if you get bored of spamming 1 1 1 1 1 1… pistol damage is pretty bad compared to rifle. and unfortunately, grenade kit will forever pigeonhole your build to 30 explosives.

As noted, grenades, with grenadier is still the highest damage.
24stacks of vul via steel packed will ensure this for some time still.
Empowering adren is stronger then shrapnel trait still.
The improved shrapnel trait is nice. However, with grenades an sharpnel grenade, you are pushing 24stacks of bleeds by yourself very likely. Meaning if you play with anyone else, you probably are capping out bleeds.
5% damage maintained simply by dodging periodically, which you probably do anyway, is definitely stronger.

The variance is smaller now though.
Rifle/discharge is fun and strong as well.

Ponder.3647:

Are you stuck on using grenades? I’d give some other kits a shot. I enjoy TANKCAT quite a bit.

You do know Tankcat is a pvp build right?

Casia.4281:

As noted, grenades, with grenadier is still the highest damage.
24stacks of vul via steel packed will ensure this for some time still.
Empowering adren is stronger then shrapnel trait still.
The improved shrapnel trait is nice. However, with grenades an sharpnel grenade, you are pushing 24stacks of bleeds by yourself very likely. Meaning if you play with anyone else, you probably are capping out bleeds.
5% damage maintained simply by dodging periodically, which you probably do anyway, is definitely stronger.

The variance is smaller now though.
Rifle/discharge is fun and strong as well.

So, we are still traiting as before the nerf. This is why the 30% reduction to G1 is so disheartening to me. The buff to HGH was trivial. Now we not only spam G1 and GB but also throw other grenades in order to maximize damage. I would rather spam one key than spam that key and monitor CDs on other grenades (in addition to monitoring CDs on elixirs). The nerf not only affected our damage in PVE but also had a deleterious effect on our playstyle, in my opinion.

Casia, have you ever considered setting up a website with current information for optimizing the engineer in PVE/PVP?

Also, happy holidays to all.

I should update the coeff post.

But the nerf was needed. and while “grenades are still the strongest” the variance is not so large anymore, that anything else is doing it wrong.
I am currently rifle/discharge and it is very strong as well.

It wasn’t even buffed really, as it didn’t depend on kits directly, so sigils worked for it already. well, sitting duck I suppose.
(Although, I could have sworn toolbelt skills used kit, not main weapon. And they clearly use main weapon now. so either I was mistaken when I first did the test some time ago, or they were changed at some point.. Regardless, throw wrench, rocketkick, suprise shot, etc are notably stronger with a rifle, then any other weapon.)

Want a strong alt build?
0/30/0/10/30.
(the 10 is actually preference. 10 in explosives? 100 power, 5% damage with not full end, to offset loss of damage when you dodge, or 10 in alch, for b at 75%, and S at 25% to ensure you don’t die or drop your bloodlust stacks)
10% rifle damage, 5% vs bleeding, sitting duck. 20 point can be range or cdr. note, that cdr is only really effective if its safe to get up into melee, it wont make your AA faster. the 8 vs 10s sitting duck/net is good either way though.
30 tools. 10% damage with full end. large damage buff, 30% crit damage, static discharge. kit refine or power tools, gadget, speedy kits your choice.

2 rifles, 1 bloodlust, or the crit one. not sure which is best atm. other 5% force. stack up, then swap to force.
medikit, TK, rifle turret, rocketboots.

TK and turret are almost entirely for throw wrench and surprise shot.
RB gives you another short CD discharge, that is targeted. (it won’t miss even if you are out of range of the melee kick, although a regular rifle AA is probably stronger, so not worth it), a nice CC break. And if you are in melee, the direct hit itself is pretty strong. Also boots and turret are blast combos. look for fire fields.

Gear. zerker accessories. armor, rifles. might want to get some extra prec. zerker does leave you low on crit. and an hgh build has very high fury uptime, medikit is lower. firearms does give free prec.
runes, scholar is highest burst potentil, but looses its main source when you drop below 90%. str is good, but you are not running perma-might with this, like an hgh build. Maybe a +20% fury rune would be better for this.

this is very competitive damage and control. Very very high burst potential.
Particularly if you can get might from allies.

(ps I actually am rifle/discharge, but with 30 alch, and 10 tools atm. I like 409 so much.)

Moonrabbit.1543:

So, we are still traiting as before the nerf. This is why the 30% reduction to G1 is so disheartening to me. The buff to HGH was trivial. <ins>Now we not only spam G1 and GB but also throw other grenades in order to maximize damage. I would rather spam one key than spam that key and monitor CDs on other grenades (in addition to monitoring CDs on elixirs). The nerf not only affected our damage in PVE but also had a deleterious effect on our playstyle, in my opinion. </ins>

Casia, have you ever considered setting up a website with current information for optimizing the engineer in PVE/PVP?

Also, happy holidays to all.

That sir, made my day. If you watch closely, Grenade #4 and #5 now have damage, so the whole point of nerfing #1 is that you’d actually need to do something else than spam #1 at 1500 while watching porn. I feel sorry for you that Anet now demands of you to use a little bit a skill to make your engineer viable. That and added sigil procing with kits.

QQing because you can’t spam your #1 is just plain hilarious, people like you make me laugh.

Pizz.3698:

That sir, made my day. If you watch closely, Grenade #4 and #5 now have damage, so the whole point of nerfing #1 is that you’d actually need to do something else than spam #1 at 1500 while watching porn. I feel sorry for you that Anet now demands of you to use a little bit a skill to make your engineer viable. That and added sigil procing with kits.

QQing because you can’t spam your #1 is just plain hilarious, people like you make me laugh.

I was not saying that spamming G1 is an acceptable rotation, only that spamming one ability is preferable to spamming that ability in addition to utilizing a few other abilities in an arbitrary way to maximize damage.

The damage on blind\poison grenades are still crap and not worth using. Don’t be fooled.

I kinda wish we’d have another way of massive vuln stacking.

yesterday i tested bomb kit as a single target dps alternative. It was a pleasent surprise. #1 critted for almost 4k damage (similar to what nades did be4). Also this could be an aoe alternative for control over large groups of mobs. The upside on this is that you can easily adjust your traits from nades to bombs (drop grenadier, drop shrapnel if used and get short fuse for extra cc or enhaced performance for some more damage which has awesome sinergy with might stacking builds and 2 runes of altruism).
All in all i think its a nice alternative worthy of trying