Guild Wars 2

I really want to play my engineer but she feels so lackluster right now. I love the flamethrower kit for example but he damage just seems subpar right now. Think they’ll ever give it a little boost?

You can get some good damage out of it with might stacking, but as far as I know, that’s about the only way lol

It’s just extremely bugged, if it worked flawlessly I’m sure it would be much more viable.

I actually consider the flamethrower one of the best abilities. I wouldn’t even play my engineer if not for that. I use it in WvW:

• Trait for it.
• Do not target enemies. Use utilities that also do not target enemies.
• Avoid fighting on slopes (so that you don’t need to target enemies)
• Remember flamethrower #2 goes where you’re looking if you don’t have a target, so look at where you want to shoot (if you are using the standard camera angle, you will fire it into the ground and do no damage)

If you do all that I think it’s better than an elementalist for straightforward “dirty crossroads fighting”. Obviously elementalists are better at killing things on walls; siege in particular; but the flamethrower is better for frontlining a push.

Even so, though, I’ve dumped my engineer in favor of elementalist because while the elementalist frontline-pushing-nonstop-AE isn’t as good, their ground targeting AE is better and more useful.

The flamethrower was originally conceived as a light AoE damage/control kit, but then the devs decided that the control was too much (they were right, by the way; the old flamethrower/juggernaut was the most OP skill in the entire game). However, when they nerfed both stability and control, they didn’t really make up for it by increasing the damage, except for handing out a few might stacks.

I think there used to be a 20-something pyro-maniac plays-in-a-metal-band developer for Anet who designed the engineer, but then he got fired.

Yeh stability on flamer was awesome. Was this the start of “god takes and gives nothin back” line we are gettin every patch. Missthrowing was reasoned with the stability it gave. But now if you compare to greatsword miskittenrower is one of the most pathetic skills out there. Damage is pretty low and the missing. Missing is so horible that there seem to be no logic. I love when my friend throws in bolas and im ready to spray just standing next to enemy and getting miss miss miss. All i could do was imagine that stunned guy laughing his kitten off. Flamethrower was engineers numb. 1 kit and I think so it should be. Still has good purposes in WvW behind gate but thats about it. Other than that you just going to miss ur critical moment.

I wish they would make it look more intimidating so I can keep convincing my fractal groups I’m pulling my weight.

Like, a bigger or brighter flame? Maybe #2 can be a huge explosion like commando’s nuke turret in borderlands. Can keep the same effect I don’t care I just want to keep getting carried while using obsolete kits.

That would make me feel much better.

FT2 should explode on impact.

Fix FT1 missing already. Seriously. At this point it’s an egregious offense. Ikiturso, are you saying the flamethrower missing is intentional? I’ve never heard that before. It’s always just been assumed to be an absolutely ridiculous bug.

FT5 is laughable. Increase the range? Lower the cooldown? Make it a bit more like Black Powder? I don’t know, but it is absolutely awful.

Maybe up the damage a little bit? Even with Might stacking and consistent hits, I’ve never felt like the FT damage justified being in melee range. Maybe if FT2 was explode on impact that might be different, as then we’d have a reliable attack in addition to FT1. (Not that FT1 is reliable right now, I simply mean an additional attack that could be coupled with autoattack to provide decent damage.)

Slamz.5376:

I actually consider the flamethrower one of the best abilities. I wouldn’t even play my engineer if not for that. I use it in WvW:

• Trait for it.
• Do not target enemies. Use utilities that also do not target enemies.
• Avoid fighting on slopes (so that you don’t need to target enemies)
• Remember flamethrower #2 goes where you’re looking if you don’t have a target, so look at where you want to shoot (if you are using the standard camera angle, you will fire it into the ground and do no damage)

If you do all that I think it’s better than an elementalist for straightforward “dirty crossroads fighting”.

^^THIS is what i’ve been saying. Turn off auto-target and promote skill cast to target and kitten the FT is good. I use elixers and HGH along with might gear to maximize the effects. Your burns hurt, you have solid health, armor, damage, and crit %.

Ft is an Aoe damage kit, with Arenanet wanting to crackdown on aoe i’d be surprised if they’d go around and then buffing an aoe kit.

Even with all it’s flaws, I can’t stop using mine. I mean…. it’s a friggin’ flamethrower in a fantasy style MMO. If it did 2 damage per channel, I’d still use it, because who didn’t dream of running around in DAoC or WoW with a Flamethrower? No one? Just me? Eh, whatever lol

use both mouse buttons and strafe while using a FT and you can hit just fine unless it’s an inanimate object. The only real viable build for FT is condition. You get burn/bleed traits and heavily stack condition. My current condition damage with a rampagers build is 1100 with the 6 juggernaught might stacks. I’m using elixir S, elixir gun and supply drop along with FT and I’m very difficult to kill. Nothing and I mean NOTHING scares off zerglings more than fire from a FT in their face. You can single handedly push them back and create the opening for your forces to slaughter them. I’ve done it many times. If you’re feeling on edging the side of death more, you can charge in, pop elixir s on the way in and start flaming them all from the middle, working your way back towards your line. If you’re not immobilized by about 4 things at once you can get away and break their lines. And I will say one thing, there isn’t anything that can keep on a ram when you’re firing a heavy condition flamethrower through it. With the exception of a catapult possibly, nothing is better at keeping things away from your door in wvw.

I find that having a huge FLAME JET spewing forward will make most opponents in WvW back up. This weapon is INTIMIDATING. Drop Napalm, swap to P/S, pop Magnetic Shield, and you have AREA MIGHT for 4 stacks, plus a Knockback. Swap back to FT and continue with the Flame Jet. Drop Napalm, swap to Tool Kit, and pull them to you through the fire line, lighting them on FIRE. Air Blast for those idiots that get too close(can knockback MULTIPLE OPPONENTS)

I have noticed that at times, when enemies are spread apart, I wind up hitting them and THEN SOME. Add to that Precise Sights(50% Vulnerability on Crit), and the steady stream of Fire will give out some good damage(odd that my low crit, 41%, procs quite a few time while spewing Flame Jet). This will also make you a target for your enemy to focus on(I have received numerous CTRL+T reticles at my feet).

The flame graphic is nonsense. Don’t pay attention to it. You can have any stupid thing targetted, but if you are holding the right mouse button and move (THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, you have to move on your character to turn on the manual aim. Scope is not advised) you can aim the cone manually to best hit multiple opponents.

This is the secret to flamethrower. If you get missmissmiss and the target wasn’t up/down a hill or was an inanimate prop (ugh) you did it wrong.

As far as power, you have to trait for the flamethrower or it’s useless. And flamethrower #2 is completely useless, don’t use it unless you’re firing into a huge zerg where it’s guaranteed to detonate on everything.

oh wow disabling auto targetting and not targetting makes the flamethrower 3 times as effective.

I doubt it, they are nerfing AoEs, which means more flamethrower and grenade nerfs.

thats the sad thing that will make the remaining players go mesmer thief and guardian.

Rezzet.3614:

oh wow disabling auto targetting and not targetting makes the flamethrower 3 times as effective.

Yes.

And manually aiming #2 is pretty fun. Probably useless 1v1 but I use it all the time in WvW. If you aim it right you can use #2 to hit people on top of walls and on the other side of tower doors (aim for the gap at the top of the door — very tricky).

I use the quickness elixir, whatever that’s called, because the toolkit ability throws a wall. If it’s a stealth wall, run through it to make people in WvW lose you as a target. If it’s reflection or smoke just stand behind it and enjoy a moment of relative safety.

Also, omnomberry pie is possibly overpowered on the flamethrower.

I’ve been doing +power builds but maybe I’ll try +condition and specing for all the +condition stuff. I usually go Alchemy line because that’s where all the good survival stuff is and you need a lot of survival when using a short range AE in WvW.

Oh…
Another nice thing about the flamethrower: smoke and reflection walls don’t work on it, since it’s not projectile based. Goes right through em. (Also goes through doors.)

It is situational (which can be said about most all our stuff)..

I fear people lock into one set of abilities after playing other classes and can’t or won’t change out kits depending on the situation.

In WpvP, I rotate my kits depending on if I am roaming solo, small group, taking a keep, defending a keep etc.

I pretty much use them all but my turrets (which is sad as I think they need more love)

Flamethrower is the last thing I enjoy about engi. If that gets nerfed I may abandon the class altogether.