Guild Wars 2

100 Nades became popular for a bit, but that seemed to die off quickly. I’m not entirely sure why, as it’s an excellent anti-Thief build really. It may not be as good at the role as a Thief, but it picks off other Thieves pretty well. I personally don’t run it though, as I love conditions. Maybe I’m out of touch with it since I haven’t tried it in awhile.

I personally play a very close version of this build, with Bomb Kit over Elixir S and I utilize the Carrion attribute layout completely sacrificing crits. Basically the entire purpose is to take out any Bunker or Defender and it does that well. Works well in team fights as well and is very effective against low health pool builds. Lacks disengage and stun breakers which is an obvious weakness. I’ll be honest though, I have no problem lacking the stun breakers as the Blinds more then make up for it. It’s the disengage I miss the most from other builds.

Teldo’s build is much more defensive and is a fantastic alternative as well. Has a lot of support and control with decent condition damage coupled with it. These more offensive variants with Nades though, would be better at killing off sustain builds especially since overloading condition removal with a sheer variety of conditions is a very real way to deal with them. There are obvious sacrifices though.

It’s usually something like this: ^^^

Edit: Just use Powerr’s link, it was the same build anyway and you don’t have to copy paste the link.

Believe me I’m not fighting Trap Rangers that use their Quickness on Shortbow autos. Their damage is almost entirely in the Pet and Traps. The traps require the Pet CC or the Elite to actually pull off more then a tick or two of effects. If you mitigate the CC and keep mobile you mitigate the majority of the Trap damage and Pet damage. Especially if you carry mild condition removal.

I’m not saying Rangers aren’t strong, nor am I saying Trap Rangers aren’t strong. A flat out duel though by a Trap Ranger isn’t what I see as their strong point. Trap Rangers are fantastic for anti-bunker, team fighting, and point defense. There are better builds, and especially better Ranger builds for the specific purpose of dueling.

I’ve always been of the opinion that Trap Rangers are actually terrible duelists. Other Ranger builds though, that’s a different story entirely. You have a Fear, Immobilize, and Entangle to worry about. Beyond that just dodge roll out of the traps and you have mitigated the vast majority of the damage.

Bunker ele’s sacrifice a lot of damage and support to get that much condition removal. Even then, hardly anyone ever takes Cleansing Flame. It’s still the case though that with Pistols alone you aren’t going to put out enough damage to get past the condition removal on a Bunker Ele, but they aren’t going to have the damage to kill you either. That is a stalemate until someone makes a mistake which can take a long, long time.

If it’s a traditional D/D Valk Ele with some arcane utilities, then as long as the Ele is skirmishing they can often outlast. The key is the majority of the damage is in the Blowtorch. Mitigate that and you can survive forever while you have enough damage to blow away what they could sustain. It’s mostly a skill matchup still, but this game is mostly about skill matchups in general anyway. We often have a fantastic advantage in that no one knows how to deal with Engineers.

To be clear, what I mean by skirmishing is I mean getting out when the pressure is too much. If you handle the burns you shouldn’t even feel that pressure, but you should never be afraid as a D/D ele to get out when things go bad and rush back in once you go through a Water Attunement. Skirmishing isn’t running away, it’s playing smart. It’s basically like kiting, except it’s the literal definition rather then the distorted ranged over melee definition it has now.

As an aside, unless this was some strange variation of it this wasn’t the Tankcat build because he brought Blowtorch.

They will pretty much always gain Retaliation when they approach 75% of their health if they have a mere 5 points in Alchemy. Especially as a D/D, you are going to have no choice but to eat that Retaliation. Refrain from multi-attacks when you can though, since your goal isn’t going to be to burst him anyway.

Your best bet is to just skirmish in and out and wear their defensive cooldowns down. They don’t have that much sustain. You do. The damage output is heavily, heavily condition based.

The biggest condition to get rid of is Burning from Blowtorch. You don’t want that stuff lasting on you. Switch to Water and use the healing cooldowns w/ a dodge roll. At that point, just get out as quick as you can so the Water cooldown comes back up. Keep an eye out for Static Shot, as you will be blinded so you won’t land your next attack. Try to use longer cast time attacks after a Static Shot as well, as you will have a couple stacks of confusion. Pretty much all of the damage is in that Blowtorch though, so keep an eye on that.

It was likely he was using Rabid or Carrion gear with something that appears to be a Pistols and Pots setup.

I agree it’s a fantastic trait as is, but I have a couple reasons I like the idea. For one, I disagree that a single condi removed is solid condition removal. It’s great in PvE, but a single condi removed isn’t really all the effective in the PvP environment. There is pretty much always more then one condition that needs removal. I also strongly would support the idea of getting heals somewhere within the thrown elixirs, but as it stands there is absolutely no room to place that as a trait on it’s own. Thus I’d pick 409 over any other trait out there because it fulfills the same goals of support.

Effectively, I want to make it much more worth the actual throwing of the Elixirs for support, rather then as something you do in between combat or instead of using auto-attacks. Even at it’s most utilized state, which would be maxed out healing gear it’d be a mere 4 thrown elixirs at once, and only two of them have reasonably low cooldowns.

The condi removal is a great choice now, but that’s because it’s our primary sources of condi removal and one of our strongest choices of it. I think the condi removal is weak, but I’m okay with us being weak to condition overload unless we slot Elixir C. I’m merely advocating that the thrown elixir actually be a enough to be thrown. The only situation currently it’s great in is if your allies are very light on the condition variety, but high on the intensity. As it stands, this a very unique situation that most people do not experience in PvP and when they do they often have the situation covered themselves. A light splash heal adds more functionality to it.

A full Alchemist would still have much less splash healing and splash condi removal then the Ele or the Guardian. Since I’ve seen Dev interest in us being more versatile and being able to aid with boon support and general support, I think this is a smart idea in leading us towards that. I totally understand the argument that it’s already being placed a trait that is strong (to us, at least) and used often. I however don’t see anywhere else to actually put it in, without screwing over what would be a Support Alchemist build.

I can kinda understand not having the Grenade and Bomb weapon slots not having Blast finishers because it’d be too strong at 100% and there probably is no code for a 20% Blast Finisher. I just think it’s necessary to put finishers whey they are deserved, such as a single Blast finisher in the Grenade Barrage. Each tool kit for example should have at least one 100% dependable finisher, and should especially be on the lookout for more dependable projectile finishers since that’s pretty much entirely what our class does.

I still think giving us better support options are in order. If we are supposed to be the profession that hands out boons and healing to supplement to create our versatility then it needs to be an actual possibility. The thrown elixirs should at least create two boons for the duration, and one of these boons should be dependable.

• Formula 409 should create a splash heal (1000 – 1600) on thrown elixirs.
• Infused bombs should create a much larger splash heal, but with a cooldown (1200-2400, 15s). This encourages the Engineer to actually swap through kits while supporting!
• Thrown Elixir H should always create Regeneration, and additionally provide either Vigor or Protection.
• Thrown Elixir B should always create Swiftness, and additionally provide either Might, Fury, or Retaliation.
• Thrown Elixir U should indicate which spell it’s going to create next. What you want is not dependable.
• Thrown Elixir S should simply do both Stealth and Stability, especially considering its cooldown.
• The cast times and radius of the thrown elixirs need a second look. The drinkable ones as well. Especially in the case of C, that should be instant cast and maybe even a stun breaker. Right now elixirs are extremely difficult to land in PvP.

Effectively, Elixirs need a tune-up. They are pretty much self-only right now. That’s all anyone uses them for.

Hotjoin is for when you just want to have fun without any pressure of rating. Solo/Duo is for when you want to have fun competitively, but lack a team either at the present time or people you are comfortable with playing competitively. Team Ranked is for when you want to have fun competitively with your team. Solo/Duo is in my opinion, absolutely required to get as many people into the competitive scene as you can.

To my knowledge, the old HGH used to give one Might stack for both thrown and drank elixirs. Awhile back, they changed it so HGH made the drinkable versions give two Might stacks. The thrown elixirs never gave more then one.

Hotjoin, Solo/Duo Rated, and Team Rated are what I think are the best options.

I love that we are getting different playstyles to discuss things in here. I myself didn’t want to step on territory I’m less familiar with then what I do, so it’s good to see the rest of what I’m concerned with in here.

In particular, the ability to go Kitless (without the damage penalty associated with kit access) should be a real thing. Easily could an accessible trait that further reduced the cooldowns of Rifle and Pistols by 20% while increasing Explosive Shot’s bleed by 2s and the Rifle’s auto-attack by another 15% or so damage. I mean I personally would probably still never go Kitless, but all the builds that choose to go this option should be capable of doing so.

I’d also really like Flash Grenades to have something more. The cast time associated with it makes it essentially I waste my attack and they waste theirs. Obviously it can have it’s uses when timed right or when Immobilized, but it still seems underwhelming. If Boon Removal were ever to be spread more prominently to the Engineer, I’d love to see each Flash Grenade remove a single boon.

I often think AoE radius of some things in PvP need to be re-examined in comparison to PvE.

No one ever said the AoE nerf was scheduled for January. Except the player-base.

Kit Refinement for a Med Kit should drop a Med Pack on a short cooldown or something.

Our downed state needs a second look as well. They should really offer a bleed and a burn. Our gimmick while down should be “don’t let him reach the bomb cooldown”. That explosions should be significant. Underwater needs an explosion as well attached to #3. Our downed state needs flavor. Right now every other profession has something to be concerned about, ours doesn’t.

I also think that the +20% Burn duration should just be +20% damage condition duration. Don’t get me wrong though, I do not that think that should be done in a vacuum. I think Warriors should get +50% Bleed and Burn on theirs, Necros should get +20% Bleed, Poison, and Chill on their trait, and the rest of the professions get a look at that “condition duration boost” trait as well. Duration adds so much damage it’s silly not to offer it all up in one package for any condition build in any class.

The Elixir traits in the Alchemy line really need some consolidation as well. Potent Elixirs and Fast Acting Elixirs is where it should be done. As it stands you can’t make a full elixir build because there are more then three traits.

I hate that Explosive Shot does absolutely terrible damage. I hate that I have to design my builds around not using my auto-attack. I have my own personal opinions on it, but I’m not even sure why it’s an AoE attack honestly. Coated Bullets could do that for the Pistol. I understand that the reason Explosive Shot does terrible damage is due to our kits and versatility, but I see no reason why it has be as severely weak as it currently is

I hate that the Glue attacks have such a short duration on their conditions. The Immobilize doesn’t even last long enough for a single bomb, and the Cripple wears off the moment they leave the field. The control with these skills is minimal. They need to be something that the enemy actually cares about.

I hate my Bombs can be blocked by a Guardian that just stands on the point. I hate that they apply zero pressure in this situation to him, and he doesn’t even have to choose to skirt the edges of a control point to avoid it. These should be one of the premier anti-bunker tools we have.

I hate that Mines are incredibly boring and not even that good the way they are setup. Some variety and potency in them would be greatly appreciated. I’d love to drop multiple types of Mines that actually mattered to an opponent who set them off. My opponents should have to traverse a mine field carefully, rather then flat out ignore it.

I hate that the duration of some of the Might and Bleed effects are so incredibly long rather then being double or triple the intensity with the duration reduced accordingly. Why can’t Elixir B be 3 Might stacks for 10s? Why can’t Shrapnel Grenades drop 2 Bleed stacks for 6s? Condi removal and Boon removal negate the vast majority of high duration abilities, and these don’t need to be that.

I hate that me stacking conditions especially in PvE creates horrible situtaions where I’m not actually doing any damage. My bleed stacks get pushed off. My burn and poison is waiting 3 minutes in the damage queue. My confusion is the only thing that even works, but it’s simply because no one else uses it. Each person should have their own set of damage condition stacks on an opponent. Conditions should work when used for focus fire, just like direct damage. On the same topic, I hate that condition duration works in a way that cuts off a portion of my damage unless I ensure the ticking conditions end on an integer value. A 3.75s bleed should do 75% of its damage on the last tick. I should not be punished so severely for not pushing it up a quarter second, nor should I feel forced into duration increases in my builds.

I hate that I somehow have a real lack of combo finishers even though I’m using Pistols, Grenades, and Bombs. Why isn’t Poison Volley a 20% projectile finisher? Why isn’t Static Shot a projectile finisher? Why isn’t Grenade Barrage a blast finisher? These are all questions I’ve asked myself.

I hate that the Elixirs I use have way too much RNG in them. I hate that even though I have the only way to spread Swiftness to my team, it’s not dependable in the slightest. Supporting my allies with Elixirs isn’t a viable thing at all the way they are designed. I seriously wish thrown Elixir H always gave Regen and thrown Elixir B always gave Swiftness. Even then, throwing a single boon would be worthless. It needs to apply more then one boon on the thrown skills. HGH can offer Might, but that’s still weak. I also wish 409 made it so the thrown elixirs had a ~1200-2000 heal associated with it. Supporting with Elixirs is not a viable concept right now. We should be able to throw down elixirs to heal and grant wonderful boon support.

But in the end, I still love my Engi. And I’ll continue to play it, regardless if I could do better as another profession. I do play a Mesmer and I do know it is much easier to accomplish many of the Power builds. I’ve tinkered with a Ranger and seen the glory of what a condition build can offer. I’ve remembered fondly of the time I played a Warrior and realize how they are in mostly as bad a spot as the Engineer is. In the end though, I love my Engineer. I want what is best for this profession. I want it to have 5 to 6 viable builds. I want burst builds, condi builds, turret builds, kitless builds, survival builds, and support builds to all be a real thing we can do competitively with other professions. I want our traits cleaned up, our skills cleaned up, and our noob traps removed. I want everything to be useful. I want this for every profession, but I’ll admit the Engineer is mine so it’s closest to my heart.

I want the Engineer to be competitive. To be loved. To be feared. It’s already the most entertaining profession there is, and is more viable then most realize. It doesn’t need anymore fun. It just needs a tune up.

Anyone know if the duration increases (boon/condition) work with Turrets as well?

They had 60 weapon strength less then dual Pistols. That’s all I know for specifics.

Just saying, they haven’t said “gadgets” scale with power or precision, just that the boons and conditions they apply now scale. So condition damage and healing power most should scale. We’ll have to test if it’s condition duration and boon duration.

Kardiamond.6952:

Engineer got buffed! (in theory)

Indeed it did! Great Engineer bug fixes. I’m jumping in glee.

They never said the balance stuff was in this patch. They only ever mentioned Feb/March in this regard. We were the ones that posted all the stuff about balanced changes in this patch.

I mean I wish there were balance changes too, but we got our own hopes up this time.

It wasn’t much of a balance patch, but that wasn’t ever said to happen anyway. Not til Feb/March. Instead we got some awesome bug fixes, which is pretty nifty.

Xplosiv.1503:

I’ve seen you defending eles thruought the topic, i can bet my money on the fact, that it’s your main.

…

1. Giving engineers some love – all my friends quit playing that class, saying that it does very poorly in pvp due to lack of everything -> meaning other classes can do it too, but alot better, i would love to see some diversity in pvp, not only seeing necros /eles/mesmers/thieves(and occasionally a guardian bunker)

My main is an Engineer, and I think the D/D Valk Ele build needs nerfs because it accomplishes too many things at once namely mobility and survival in contrast to it’s damage output. I also think burst damage and bunker sustain across the board needs to be looked at. Not sure where you thought I was defending the Ele profession. My only alts with any realistic playtime are a Mesmer and Warrior, I’m sorry you got that impression about me.

The only thing I could think of, is maybe I was trying to help someone kill a D/D ele or bunker ele in general. I have pointed out that these builds drop to overwhelming condi spam better then anything else. The builds are a bit too strong I think, but they aren’t flat out unbeatable.

Mostly what I want is a massive trait and skill cleanup. Utilities need a good cooldowns look revamp as well, since many are simply too long. If you need any evidence for what I play, simply look at my post history which is primarily within the Engineer forums or my signature which I assure you is what I play the majority of the time. Specifically, I have a massive document compilation about all about issues, concerns, and suggestions for the Engineer that I plan to finish up and put out after I’ve had some time to soak in this patch. I assure you I have no personal love for the Ele profession, but I’ll also point out I don’t want the entire Ele profession nerfed into oblivion.

I probably shouldn’t have been so concerned about being mislabeled, but this is twice this has happened in one week. I’m curious as to why.

The reason I think it’s enough, is because if there is too much boon removal in the game then boons become much less meaningful. Changing their value too much could have unforeseen consequences.

There is already boon removal in weapons, some of which is spammable. I don’t see any reason they should be utility skill only if the precedent is already set.

The Warrior and Engineer need more Boon Removal, but I think that would be enough. Flash Grenades, Toss Elixir C, and the Mace & Greatsword Burst skills would be prime candidates in my opinion.

I always thought dodge was completely sacred. Maybe it’s been so long since I’ve seen a static field I didn’t even remember that.

It does feel weird to be able to dodge roll them, especially when being very visible. I don’t think this will ever change though.

It’s usually the case that when you design something one way, changing it to work another way is very time consuming and risky. Especially if you built it to be extremely robust the way that you first thought it would only need to be. MMO Engines have to deal with a lot of race conditions as well a bunch of other things that the usual person could not even conceive of.

In the end though, since none of us have access to the source code we simply won’t know. Even if it was a simple change then you still have to take into account the extreme amount of testing that needs to be done on that change alone.

It was a mistake to start it out that way, certainly. What is done is already done however, and I don’t blame them for taking their time in fixing it.

Jumpshot doesn’t have a delay if you cancel the animation.

The animation can be canceled by switching in and out of Med Kit for example while you are in the air.

Yeah the #1 skill change to a condi variant would be more of a refinement change for me. Not necessary, but Bombs are usually used in condi builds regardless. Besides, one step at a time. Don’t want to do too much or you risk overbuffing things.

If left spammable, it probably shouldn’t be unblockable. Although, I’ve thought about it rather critically and haven’t really decided with myself whether the #1 skill would be too strong if it were also unblockable. Especially since you can’t really use the Bombs in reaction to a block (as it’d already be pretty much over by the time the bombs went off). As said though, perhaps I’m not seeing this issue clearly and I’ll default to what you guys are saying.

Really the change to me seems like a natural fit. It aids in making the Bombs an anti-bunker type of setup, and makes them slightly harder to brute force counter.

Ayestes.1273:

http://www.intothemists.com/calc/?build=-VRR;0B-Z-Vg0c-FQFx0;9;4T9-T-21A0;319A;1SN1;0o0-hoHAhoHA1Fv

I may actually write a guide about it, like I did with my Warrior Guide back in beta. For now though, I figure that above post describes a fair chunk of it already. The build is actually pretty variable as it stands. I’ve been testing out changes purposefully to see if anything else needs to be done.

Protection Injection, 20% Pistol CD Reduction, 20% Grenade/Bomb CD Reduction, and Geomancy Sigil for example are all things that I’ve played with before are are good choices. The jab of Might stacking is pretty recent, and I figured without Might runes it wouldn’t be that good. It ended up feeling really good regardless, and it still gets up to a decent size stack.

Basic combo depends on the opponent (and how accurate you are with Grenades), but the general concept for me is to lob my Grenades as I close in and then utilize the Chilled or Crippled (if I miss Freeze Grenades I’ll Glue Shot) target’s reduced speed to spam bombs all over their face. Use of Static Shot is incredibly important in dealing with burst damage, since Blind is basically the core defensive skill. Becoming incredibly fluent in changing kits is important, although I’ll admit when you are just starting out the build it’s probably okay just to spam all the cooldowns of each kit. Always lead with Freeze Grenades if you can, so the rest are incredibly easy to land. In general Grenades are super easy to land point blank as well. The biggest thing is simply learning how to land all the explosives, and when to use them.

What it lacks is a stun-breaker and perma-swiftness. It’s possible to trade out Elixir B for S, but then you completely lack swiftness. Besides, the lack of a stun breaker hasn’t really been that big of an issue for me with so many blinds. If I bring this out in WvW I’d run 2 Lyssa runes and Veggie Pizza for +100% condi duration.

Right now I’m running Shrapnel, Forceful Explosives, Grenadier, Hair Trigger (instead of Knee Shot), Fast-Acting Elixirs, Cleaning Formula 409, and HGH as traits. Pistol / Pistol, Nightmare Runes (+20% condi-duration), Carrion stats (CondiDmg, Power, Vit), and Elixir H, Grenade Kit, Bomb Kit, Elixir B, with Supply Drop for skills.

sPvP focused as a Bunker Buster. Easy to apply variants to other game types as well, although condi-dmg in dungeons for the most part isn’t the strongest of ideas.

Remember to copy and paste links if you didn’t already know.

It just meant you cherry picked the traits out of each tree with 10 or 20 points in every line. It wasn’t that great. Consider now with most of the traits being as bad as they are with only a couple of good ones how quickly everyone would be the same build even more then they already are.

What I’d really like in general, is just a major cleaning up of all the bad stuff in every profession. The skills that aren’t often even worth a key press and the traits no experienced player would ever take. Each profession is littered with these noob traps that sounds good on paper to someone new to the game, but are absolute garbage.

Whenever I tested it, it always rounded down. I haven’t done so in awhile though.

Sigil of Battle and Geomancy also at least certainly work on kit swaps. The reason stats don’t work on kits is because the game uses a kit directly in our weapon slot. We also often have reduced weapon strength while holding them as well.

I’d love to see the Mine Kit be a kit again. I’d rather just have the Mine Field be the Tool Belt ability in that case, and Kit Refinement could just drop a single mine at your feet.

As for specific mines, I think three basic one with blowout is just too much. Letting them stack isn’t an issue to me, in in fact would be the primary purpose if it was used to protect a capture point. Let 1 through 3 be the short cooldown mine with various effects such as turning a boon to a condition, bleeding, and burning. Then let the 4th and 5th one be longer cooldown versions with chill and the other a blowout, the 5th one being the only Blast finisher. The mines from traits, tool belt skills, and kit refinement in this case would be a random set from 1, 2, and 3.

You might be right about the #1 Bomb. Being able to spam it could be a little much. I think it’s only Marks and Traps that are possibly unblockable.

I’d actually rather have #1 be a 5s cooldown itself with some sort of bleed component, but I think one step at a time would be a good thing. I admit though that even this would change some of the functionality among traits / killing objects.

Either as default or with the Forceful Explosives trait. This would put them in the same category as Traps and traited Marks. Basically this would make them even better at killing off Bunkers who stand in them. Their radius is already nerfed, but it seems kinda silly people can throw up their shield and be immune to all the explosions around them.

I really think this would make them competitive again. You either dodge roll them or get out. Reasoning being, they are a very delayed attack. This would make Big ol’ Bomb useful again against classes with blocking attacks, and make it so a short spout of bombs can’t just be avoided with one fell swoop. The radius is already small enough now so they can’t cover an entire point, so making them unblockable would simply make it so they can’t be brute force ignored.

Make it require more skill in avoiding the bomb explosions, and make them more threatening.

Yeah it’s always a good idea to test everything on the dummies. Tool tips can lie as well.

The reason the Rifle is used over the Nades in most situations is the accuracy and therefore reliability. Success with anything but the Freeze Nades is iffy due to the small radius.

There is a patch on the 28th. There may be balance changes within, there may not be. Anything they have talked about may or may not be in there as well. There is no certainty.

Theoretically Scholar 5/6 and 1/6 Divinity is strongest. 6/6 Ogre is a little behind that. Of course 6/6 Scholar tops all of that if you are over 90% Health.

It’s also a problem the devs have pointed out they want to address by making at least 5-6 builds viable. The meta matters, but I think a lot of people seriously overstate it’s value. PZ has been consistently pointing out how strong their new aggressive comp is.

It’s possible they had two or more Rangers. Or just talking about layering the Poison, Fire, and Bleed/Cripple one on each other like normal.

The Rifle should stay a ranged weapon. If anything, the weak end of the the Blunderbuss attack should be extended to full Rifle range while keeping the high close range damage intact.

When we are talking about RNG we are talking mostly about how the skills are based on randomized effects. As an example, when you throw Elixir S then you get either Stealth or Stability.

I think it’d be fine to remove the AoE from Explosive Shot and just call it Shrapnel Shot. Seriously whatever it takes to get rid of the awful 2s base duration bleed. I understand that our kits make it so our mainhand weapons aren’t as strong as other classes, but that is way too low.

Then our AoE Pistol trait could be reworked to make every Pistol ability more AoE. Shrapnel Shot in this case could just have a radial explosion that bleeds everything hit by it. Poison Volley could still pierce. Static Shot could bounce two more times. Blowtorch could have a much wider cone. Glue Shot could be a bigger radius.

Heck I also wish there was a trait early in Firearms that made it so we can’t equip kits. Except to compensate this trait would give us 30% additional cooldown reduction on the Rifle and Pistol while increasing the Pistol auto’s base bleed by a second or two and the Rifle auto’s damage. Make it so Pistols and Pots isn’t damage nerfed simply becuase it doesn’t take kits. For the Rifle, make the Scope trait a deep tools trait that increases range by a further 25% and damage by 20% instead of the current iteration of it and you could have some interesting Sniper builds that lack kits. Change Blunderbuss to be usable at full Rifle range as a damage cooldown (with it’s close range super strength still) and you have just made two builds completely viable.

I mean I personally love kits myself and would never go without them, but it doesn’t mean I don’t think these other builds shouldn’t be viable. Going kitless should be traitable, and if the current concept revolves around our mainhand weapons being damage nerfed because we have kits then a change needs to be made.

Kit Refinement on the Grenade Kit will likely drop to 3 Grenades or something, but hopefully the spread will be reduced significantly to compensate.

That sigil has a cooldown of ten seconds. Either it’s a bug or you aren’t seeing it right.

I really think the Radius of Grenades and Bombs (except both #4 skills) needs to be increased in PvP. With a lot of practice you can land a lot more then most people realize, but the amount of misses is still extremely excessive.

Bombs and Mines should probably be unblockable like traps and marks as well.

Aelaren.3784:

Ayestes, maybe you know if Chilling sigil works atm? Wiki says some strange stuff that leads to believe superior sigil of chilling doesnt work, but I havent tested it.
I thought of maybe going Ice+Chilling, combined with my +70% cond duration it would be swell.

Ice has a 10 second cooldown, so I’m not really sure on that one myself. I’ve never tested Chilling, it’s possible it’s different in PvP. Some stuff works in PvP but not PvE and vice versa.

Honestly, if you want extra Chilling pick up Hydromancy and kit swap next to opponents.

If you are going to actually do a condition damage dps style for dungeons, you are going to want to make sure no one else applies Burning or much Bleeding at all, that you have at least two Burning sources, and that you are using Shrapnel traited Shrapnel Grenades. All on top of +100% condition duration. Basically you want the Burning and multi-stacks of Bleed.

Direct Damage and Support tend to be better off though. You are going to need at least the Grenade Kit if you stick to conditions.

Remember any Sigil on cooldown prevents all other Sigils with a cooldown from working while it remains on cooldown.

Also remember on-swap Sigils work on every Kit Swap. So Sigil of Doom would work fine if you regularlly swap kits, whether you actually need the extra Poison though is rather debatable. Poison Volley, Fumigate, and Poison Grenades usually gives us way more then enough Poison uptime. I lack the Elixir Gun for example, and it’s not uncommon for me to see more then 40 seconds of Poison on a target. So I agree that Doom doesn’t work, but you should remember on-swap stuff does work. Although you probably shouldn’t mix on-swap and on-crit.

Basically, if you have the Precision for it you should use an on-crit Sigil. There is really only one on-crit Sigil to use for a condition build as well, the Sigil of Earth for extra bleeds. If you really don’t want an on-crit Sigil, then Geomancy and Battle are good choices for on-swap. Geomancy if you plan on swapping in melee range often, and Battle if you want extra anti-ranged power like I do.

The biggest choice you have to make is which Sigil you put on the side. +5% crit and +5% damage are backup choices if you don’t like it, but generally Sigil of Corruption for stacking condition damage on kills is the best. The other choices out there are just meager in comparison. As long as you don’t pick up one with a cooldown it’ll work though, but seriously it’s very easy to stack the stacking Sigils. I mean with it’s not uncommon for me to have over 2k condition damage with some might stacking to help it, and over +50% condition duration. I wouldn’t be able to get that high without Corruption.