Guild Wars 2

So, are Bombs in WvWvW = suicide due to the need to be so close to be effective? What are your takes on bombs in the battlefield? Maybe use a lot of +Heal and Elixir Infused bombs?

In my experience, Bomberman in WvW’s biggest strength is being a finisher/executioner. Smoke bomb → Finish. If smoke bomb is on CD, just bomb the downed person.

Otherwise, it is pretty lackluster since most of your control/dmg relies on people sitting in your bombs (notably fire and smoke bomb). You need allies to provide immobilize/cripple in order to shine in combat. Okay against melee, terrible against ranged. Either get the drop on ranged opponents, or have them exhaust their endurance before dropping glue bomb (even then, they may have an escape mechanism to get out of it). Also potentially don’t get the benefit of healing bombs due to the mobile nature of fights and zerg burst of WvW (healing only benefits in drawn out fights).

You can play supportish, going 10-0-30-20-10 (inc radius, 20 toughness = 1 power, tough with shield or 10% combat movespeed, elixir infused bombs, cleanse), using a pis/shield to provide a blast finisher to give allies a stealth buff or might buff (smoke and fire bomb, respectively). Using Cleric gear (pow,tough,+heal).

A more offensive build is 30-0-30-0-10. Probably using a rifle in this case for an immobilize and since it scales with power, using the leap finisher from stealth bomb for possible getaways or disorientating/juking/distancing opponent in a duel. Using Cleric or Knight (+pow, +prec, +tough) gear.

If you want, you could try something with 20 points in Tools so that the wrench in tool kit cripples, use the magnet to pull in ranged (sadly unreliable due to the delay and lackluster range). Provides another block. Downside is you only have 1 more free utility slot and have to choose between a stun breaker or a cleanse. Might as well take out the points in Alchemy trait tree since you’ll have nearly no elixirs to use, maybe only getting 10 points for the emergency elixir S. Kinda gimmicky but maybe someone could get it to work.

I like bombs in WvW but I do not use them as you might expect. I’ve recently switched bombs into my WvW setup and have found a build I really like. It requires group support though.

I run a 0 30 10 0 30 build. It’s a rifle / tools build. With a mix of berzerker, Valkyrie and knight armor.

I’ve taken to using bombs in WvW as both a defensive and offensive tool.

A lot of the time I run around with with a mesmer that is doing a shatter confusion damage spec, and a few staff / mace shield support guardians.

I’ll use my bombs to help setup the mesmers burst. For example the 5 stacks of confusion on the #3 bomb is really good, since the mesmer who has more condition damage will take over the effect when he uses his shatter. It ends up being 15-16 confusions stacks and on someone maxing out condition damage that becomes 5-6k hits on ability use. It is devastating.

Glue bomb also helps to lock down, and smoke bomb to mitigate damage while our mesmer works on getting his adds out to shatter.

We also use it a lot at keeps to wipe people using flame rams. Our guardian will drop a reflect wall behind the ram and our mesmer and I will pop out and do your combo to burst down 3-4 people and slow the ramming.

The added benefit to bomb is it is a really nice defensive tool. When pulling back or kiting a large group the glue bomb, smoke bomb, and tool belt can be very effective if you place them in narrow spots as you run. When combined with tool kit and kit refinement + box of nails it lets you build silly cripple up time. And if your like me you’ll kite people to a cliff then knock them off!

So I am not using bombs for dps as much as support. The bulk of my dps comes from static discharge + blunderbuss and jumpshot.

I’ve tried going a more tanky bomberman build and it was ok. But I do not enjoy it as much.

Without a group though this spec is hard to use in WvW. You need team support to be able to hit rams crews.

If your solo your always better off just going 30 explosives and spamming grenade 1

Good for kiting and defense. Not a primary offensive kit in wvw (imo). Grenade kit/bomb kit/stunbreaker is a decent build for wvw.