Guild Wars 2

I like the bomb kit. It’s needed if you’re running bunker engineer in tournaments and it’s good in general for any condition build, but really… landing those bombs is nearly impossible for me.

Even if I run around like an headless chicken spamming bombs everywhere, it seems like people can easily get out of their range and avoid damage completely. For some time I even started resorting to the Net Turret to keep people still while I try to bomb them, but that’s only so effective.

How do you use your Bomb Kit? Do you have any advice?

In regards to bombs you have to understand that you have a very specific role in PvP (both RvR and WvW): area denial. To a lesser extent you can also serve as support, especially if you trait for healing and grab elixir-infused bombs. As such, do not plan on being top damage dealer unless you happen to be in the middle of a scrum of melee dropping bombs.

Played correctly however, you will be incredibly difficult to dislodge from points, and you will be a total nightmare for melee with even rudimentary kiting. Those annoying thieves that kill you so quickly? Watch most of them commit sepuku on confusion bombs (the good ones won’t, but i haven’t seen many good ones).

In WvW your role becomes a bit more obtuse. You can provide a constant stream of healing for keep assaults and defense, but if you are running solo it sucks because you will not get any kills. With proper kiting you can take out minor objectives solo, so you can do that if you would like. If worse comes to worse you really want to participate from a damage sense grab the mortar elite and fire from a defensible position.

During open field assaults wait for a big melee engagement and then run in and start spamming (begin with a glue bomb and go to town).

One final point: survivability is not optional in this build. You will need to invest heavily into two of the following: vitality, toughness and/or healing power (if you have elixir infused bombs). I would prefer vit/healing/power, but there is no armor that does this so Cleric’s is your next best option. Unfortunately toughness is just a weaker stat that vit currently due to scaling issues and the fact that it does not reduce condition damage. On the bright side bombs have the best scaling of any engineer ability with power, the only exception being a grenadier, and even then it only edges slightly, especially after the new patch. Grenades of course have the range advantage (but lose the support option).

You mean in WvW? For starters don’t expect to win if you are out numbered. Running while dropping glue(and big) bomb is the best option. Usually i trick somebody to melee me because they dont expect me to use a bomb kit in pvp. In melee you can usually win even against warriors. Be sure to drop a glue bomb because eventually your foe will realize and back off, then switch to rifle(or pistol/pistol) to finish them off. Note this only works in 1 on 1(or smaller PvP matches). You are not much use in zergs because of all the range spaming

I can’t give you any proper guidance on the WvW aspect of Bomb Kit but I have successfully used the kit in every sPvP build that I’ve created including my current one which focuses on precision/toughness/condition damage.

When fighting against one or two players, confusion (not the condition) and timing is the key to landing those hits. Make them focus on something else, not the ground. Most of the time people tunnel vision onto their UI or where the enemy player is moving instead of where your condition fields/bombs are. We have the ability to switch between kits and our regular weapon with ease so you should use that to your advantage. Lay down combo fields or mayhem from your other abilities while switching back and forth to put down that bomb that just finished its cool down.

#2, #4, and #5 have a field, so just setting it up and kiting enemies into an area will definitely do you good. Dropping #1 and #3 successfully is a matter of whether or not the enemy is following you. Trick them by running behind a wall where your Concussion Bomb is laying down in the shadow. Creativity is your best friend in these situations as you utilize LoS and objects to your advantage.

A way to get that pesky glass cannon off of you is to drop a smoke bomb immediately followed by a concussion. He will continue to rage against you while furiously hitting his keys until he realizes that he’s just hurting himself.

Practice and evading are your best friends.

I play Engineer is tournament’s and i use bomb kit and this is how i usually get a 100% hit on bombs.

The great advantage to bombs is that every single bomb looks the same until the explosion ( with the exception of the big ol bomb). So this is what i usually do when point fighting.

1: Start on main weapon Pistol/Shield and fight like that getting conditions on them.
2: When they attack Press skill 5 and stun them.
3: Switch to bomb kit and place concussion bomb and glue bomb one after the other
4: when they come out fo the stun both bombs should have gone off chaining confusion and immobilize.
5: Place big ol bomb to stop them being on you point and to give you some breathing space.
6: place incendry bomb and start comboing the projectile burn.
7: hold smoke if they get close and personal and then rinse and repeat.

Hope this helps

You need at least some CC to get your bombs going. Try using an immob/cripple at first, then drop glue bomb. After that you can get a bombs off.

However, in sPvP I find bombs have limited use. Mostly it’s the big ol bomb and the combo fields that help. As a DPS source they are not reliable. Altough if you’re playing bunker and just want to keep people off you, maybe you shouldn’t care if they hit. Once you’ve dropped a bomb, people will step back or take the damage.

It is important to remember that when your moving, chasing someone, or pushing into a group, that the bombs explode behind you given the cast time / delay.

You have to push deep into a group of enemy players to get bombs to hit as they move.

Because of this it really helps to ensure you have perma swiftness or a speed boost like slick shoes.

It also means that in a WvW group setting your much better as a point guard / finisher than as a front line dps, since you lose a lot of dps to a rifle / grenade engi who can attack in front of them as they move.

As mentioned before, CC is the key to getting your bombs to land. Melee is generally no problem, but against a good kiting ranged class you are going to have to switch and use ranged weapons or other kits while not in range for your bombs.

I use bombs extensively, applications in pve/spvp are pretty well known.

WvW bombs however can be tricky and limited at times, but they do have their strengths:

*Great when being chased. Group of enemies on your tail? Swiftness(you should have speedy kits in WvW) and drop a trail of bombs behind you to slow them or make them eat lots of damage

*Choke points with a melee scrum

*This is my fave, for sieges or zerg v. zerg, I call it the zerg-buster build. It’s basically a bunker modified for WvW…super tanky, p/s, protection traits, invis on immob, swift kits, vigor on swift, elixir S (and/or slick shoes), and of course bomb kit. This build is designed for charging into enemy lines, creating chaos and retreat, and making it out alive. Sample version would go stability(elixir S toolbelt/friendly guardian) >swiftness (charge enemy zerg) > pistol 3(aoe blind) >activate shield 5 block> reach enemy zerg> activate any combo of the following aoe: BoB, smoke bomb, glue bomb, supply drop, slick shoes >shield 4 reflect/knockdown > gtfo -elixir S or slick shoes + swift+ dodge to escape back to your lines while healing and cleansing conditions. Throw as many dodges into the rotation as you can, you will be attracting lots of attention and nullifying kitten tons of damage (by chaining block, reflect, blind, dodge, elixir S)

All of that aoe knockback, stun, and blind generally freaks out the zerg and their natural inclination is to move back, or else a bunch of them overextend into your lines in a (usually) futile attempt to kill you for your cheeky audacity. It’s best when you have supporting team following you, but I’ve charged into group of 30-40 solo and made it out alive, and even against a zerg like that I caused the lines to shift and encouraged my side to push forward behind me.

You want to gear/trait tanky for most bomb builds, no question.