I run this build in PvE (and have been for the past 2 months). I’ve been working on my build, little tweaks gradually. I feel at the moment I have a very strong build and upon seeing this thread I thought I should share. A couple comments about my specific build:
1) This is a bruiser build. You are not a damage dealer, you are not a tank. You deal consistent, AoE damage to mobs. You aren’t going to out damage a Thief or Mesmer and you can’t stay up as long as a Guardian but you will deal damage to everything you fight.
2) This is tuned for PvE, not for PvP or WvW. Most likely, very little of my discoveries can be well applied to PvP.
First my items. I am in full Knight gear except for my rings, which are ascended Power, Toughness, Crit Damage (Adelbern’s and Rurik’s Royal Seals).
My weapon is a Rifle with a Sigil of Fire. I could use Pistols to get two Sigils but I prefer the Rifle when I am not able to use my Flamethrower, which has been a consideration multiple times.
My runes currently are Rune of the Pack but multiple damage tests I have done have indicated that the best rune is Rune of Strength or Rune of the Scholar (this is assuming that I am above 90% health at least 10% of the time which I don’t find to be likely).
My trait build is 0/30/20/20/0 with the following traits:
Firearms: Precise Sights, Fireforged Trigger, Juggernaut
Inventions: Energized Armor, Power Shoes (though I also have used Elite Supplies)
Alchemy: Fast-Acting Exilirs, Deadly Mixture
My utilities are: Elixir H, Elixir R, Elixir U, Flamethrower, Supply Crate
As you can see I go deep in Elixirs (traited into) but I do so because Elixir R is very strong for PvE (both Toolbelt and regular use). Elixir H is about the same as any other healing skill for me (since the CD is the same as Turret with the trait). Elixir U has been good for boosting my damage quickly and I have noticed the benefit for sure.
With all this, I have 1730 Power, 1764 Precision (45% Critical Chance) and 2084 Toughness (3148 Armor).
Flame Jet deals about 2000 damage on average to most mobs I encounter. I have observed this to be about 1/2 of the damage a full berserker Thief/Ranger/Mesmer per second. This is AoE however so there is some benefit to that. If I also add in Sigil of Fire thanks to the recent buff it usually hits for about 1200 and crits very often.
I do not always use Omnomberry Ghosts but generally will for Arah or hard Fractals (Dredge or Cliffside). The Ghosts definitely boosts your ability to take damage significantly and is incredibly useful.
I am unsure how effective this build is in PvP environments because it requires you to chase and be in melee range constantly. However, unlike Wrench, you don’t have as strong control elements and you are not rewarded for going into the Tools tree for the swiftness boost on Kit Swap. However, if you want a decent PvE build, what I have posted above has worked very well for me in the past months.