Showing Posts For Chris Regian.3048:
Well I didn’t see it anywhere in his initial updated post or anywhere in the first 4 or 5 pages of posts that seemed to get more off topic and a bit trolltastic. Maybe somewhere in that thread he talks about why it is superior to put 10 more in alchemy instead of 10 more in explosives but I didn’t see the discussion. The 100 power and 10% condition duration seem just as good if not better than the 100 vit and 10% boon duration to me. You might need to slot elixir C to have enough condition removal when 409 is gone but the trade for extra stacks of might seems fair…but that isn’t talked about in any of his alternatives in that link.
Two reasons:
The first is that more Boon Duration = More Might
1 stack of Might is 35 Power, 35 Condition Damage. Let’s say you’re running 6 Runes of Altruism with 30 Alchemy. That’s 45% Boon Duration.
Juggernaut applies 1 stack of Might every 3 seconds each that last for 15 seconds. With base Boon Duration that’s 5 total stacks. With 45% Boon Duration that’s 7 sustained stacks of Might. With 35% Boon Duration that’s 6 sustained stacks of Might. You’re actually not gaining 100 Power with 10 points in Explosives. You’re actually only gaining 65.
And Condition Duration? For what? Flamethrower Engineers have access to more than plenty Burning applications to permanently sustain it with only 10 points in Explosives. Another 10% isn’t enough to get an extra stack of Bleed from Sharpshooter either, so you gain nothing there. And 10% increased duration of Vulnerability against bosses? You will hardly notice.
The second reason, which compounds on the first one, is that Energy Conversion Matrix gives you a flat 1% boost in damage for every Boon you have. You may think that isn’t a whole lot; 1% is hardly noticeable.
But the difference between 2000 Power and 2100 Power in the output of your damage, when applied to a skill co-efficient, is usually around a 1% difference in damage. And actually: many times less.
If you’re running Infused Precision and Invigorating Speed, on top of Might and Fury, that’s a flat 4% increase in your damage which will significantly outperform an extra 100 Power in your build.
The whole advantage to running 20 Explosives is actually not about the Power and Condition Duration at all: It’s Enhance Performance giving you 3 extra stacks of Might. But I don’t know about you, but when I’m feeling serious about my Might stacking I can get to 19 stacks of Might all by myself.
99% of the time, the other 6 stacks of Might are granted by someone else. We are, after all, not the only class that can stack Might.
As for condi removal, I recommend Cleaning Formula 409 to start but I haven’t used it in weeks. Not since I swapped to the Healing Turret in dungeons.
Also, based on what you are saying Cleaning Formula 409 is a Grandmaster skill, but on the wiki it is listed as a master skill. Did they patch it so that it is a master because they felt that having it active along with one of the other master traits was too powerful?
usually people take accuracy/force on their offhand because those sigils don’t have any cooldowns to share with other sigils. with such high crit you get from full berserker gear already, it would probably be more useful to get something like blood for extra survivability/damage or fire for extra aoe damage over the 5% crit chance. if you run pistol + pistol/shield you could have something like strength in one hand and accuracy in the other.
if you want to take it further with the bloodlust sigil you can use it until you reach 25 stacks, then swap out that weapon for another with a different sigil. bloodlust/corruption become quite useless at 25 stacks.
Does the bloodlust effect stay while its unequipped?
I definitely like the sigil of strength, but I dont know if I will be switching in and out of the flamethower enough to utilize the sigil of battle. Does anyone have an opinion on whether the power boost of sigil of bloodlust or the slight crit chance increase (since the flamethrower can crit easily already and I am using berserker gear for increased crit damage) from sigil of accuracy would be better?
Bloodlust > Force > Perception > Accuracy
Accuracy is really only useful if you’re trying for on-crit effects like Empowering Might. As a DPS option it’s pretty much the worst choice.
Bloodlust adds more damage through Power than Force’s 5% increase; the same with Perception and Accuracy for Precision.
I recommend investing in two shields, one of which has Force and the other has Bloodlust. If you’re killing enough stuff with maximum potency Bloodlust is easy to achieve, use that one. If you’re not, like running CoF, use Force.
A decent bit of what I went for already came from the guide you have in your PM lol. I will go with bloodlust then and try out another shield too.
I definitely like the sigil of strength, but I dont know if I will be switching in and out of the flamethower enough to utilize the sigil of battle. Does anyone have an opinion on whether the power boost of sigil of bloodlust or the slight crit chance increase (since the flamethrower can crit easily already and I am using berserker gear for increased crit damage) from sigil of accuracy would be better?
if you are going for a might stacking set, yes.
Ok. Any ideas on sigils? Or should I just pick ones with good bonuses that I like.
You just need enough +cond duration to keep burning rolling for the +10% damage buff of FT autoattack. If you are geared berserker then you aren’t dealing much cond damage so stacking any cond dmg stats is useless. Might helps cond dmg, but also straight dmg too so that’s quite useful.
So do you think the 2X, Hoelbrak, Strength, and Fire runes that give the increased %60 percent might duration and power bonuses is the most practical set.
Interesting combinations. Is it safe to say that increasing condition duration would be almost pointless since the flamethrower applies them some rapidly, and I would be better off trying to increase might and condition damage? The only benefit I could think of from increasing condition duration is getting larger stacks of vulnerability with precise sights
Also, does anyone think there is any effectiveness in using 6x Superior runes of altruism with the healing turret as support for my group and increasing the survivability of myself (plus a 15% increase in boon, mainly might, duration)? Or maybe something like 6x Rune of the undead for lots of condition damage (though I don’t know if runes that would help increase might would cause a higher damage output than just a straight increase to condition damage.
Otherwise I do like the idea of 2x Fire, Hoelbrak, and Strength.
(edited by Chris Regian.3048)
pve or pvp?
Prett much PvE. I really dont have plans to do PvP but may try out WvW at some point.
Hey guy,
I have been playing with the engineer for a while now and really love the flamethrower. While I know a build with one may not be the best possible I really enjoy using it so I would like to try to make the best build possible with it.
What I have worked out so far is that I am using a full set of Berserker’s Emblazoned armor, have 30 in firearms, 30 in alchemy, and 10 in explosives. Currently I have Precise Sights, Fireforged Trigger, Juggernaut, Incendiary Powder, Fast-Acting Elixirs, Deadly Mixture, and HGH active. Skills I have been switching between recently but the main ones I like are the healing turret, flamethrower (obviously), Elixir B, Elixir C and Elixir X.
Right now I am using a basic rifle but plan to switch to a shield and pistol because I want to experiment with the shield. Additionally I would like to avoid changing my armor insignias because of the cost unless some other set will make a HUGE difference.
Currently I have no sigils or runes.
I understand that maximizing the effectiveness of the flamethrower deals with increasing condition damage and getting many stacks of might, but I am unsure of the best way to do this. I am up to tweaking some of my traits and skills and what not so throw out whatever.
With all this said, what do any of you think would be the best way to go about maximizing the damage output and survivability of the build framework I have already established?
Thanks.