Guild Wars 2

Some decent information in here.

Just wanted to point out that your Sigil discussion is a little unclear. I’m not certain this is the case, but just in case it is Sigils share cooldowns with each other. That would mean Geomancy and Earth wouldn’t function very well together.

100 Nades and Condi-Burst are essentially verified competitive in sPvP.

Other builds may be competitive as well, but have yet to be openly discovered. I mean I honestly suspect some kind of control direct damage build with a Flamethrower could be effective (not using the FT auto for damage), and I think some kind of Elixir Gun bunker build out there could be effective as well. As to how effective? No idea, because I enjoy Condi-Burst too much.

Using “autos” as an Engineer in general is a DPS loss, I find the best builds find ways to use damage cooldowns as often as possible instead of autos. That said, between Bombs and Nades it’s likely Nades come out superior due to the extra Vuln and proc chances. Bombs work better for condi-builds or heal bomb builds.

It’s interesting to see your results on the Tool Kit, I recall it being much quicker then even 3 seconds for a full combo. I wonder if they’ve messed with it somehow since I tested it so long ago. I’ve always advocated Tool Kit as the highest DPS auto, but if it’s 3.25 seconds now that isn’t likely to be the case.

See I actually find the damage tax on mainhand weapons needed because of versatility. Not necessarily versatility in switching to another role, but because of the versatility of having multiple damage cooldowns among multiple kits. Having 3 weapon for example sets essentially without cooldown swaps is an advantage and nothing less then an advantage.

Do I think it’s executed correctly right now though? Not at all. I think we should have some form of Kitless trait that beefs up the mainhand weapons to where the handicap of not having a weapon swap at all would be, and I think the damage tax is a bit overdone as it stands. It should be much less severe then it is now. As it stands right now, unless you multi-kit it up your sustained damage output is going to be smaller then it should be. It can be a little different in PvP because utility can often make up for overall DPS, but the problem is still there in a lesser form.

When it comes to being medium range, I think that’s true. We aren’t a 1200-1500 standoff class and we aren’t really a melee class. We play best somewhere in between, where we can move from range to melee at our discretion to output the damage. I do think that the Rifle needs some work on the #3 though, as I think that is entirely too short. There are some other discrepancies between the theory and actuality though, and that needs to be addressed.

I actually agree with the class philosophy on what we should be, but I do not agree that it is what we are now. Which is what I explained above concerning the quote.

Which parts do you find questionable? Could you elaborate? I see some great potential for discussion on this.

When it comes to thrown Elixirs, dropping a single boon even if it wasn’t random doesn’t even feel like it would be necessarily worth the cast time. I have this issue even when it has HGH, it doesn’t feel worth it. Not only do they need to not be as random, they need more of an effect.

As it stands, I only use them out of combat or for cleansing. At least when it comes to H or B. That just doesn’t feel right. They should actually feel worth using in terms of buffing your allies, even in combat. That’s even compared to using my freetime with Explosive Shots, which are pretty bad in their own way.

We have terrible boon support in my opinion. We can pull of a Fire Field and pick up a bunch of Blast combos, but that wrecks our Utility slot choices. Other professions to me can provide non-combo based boon support much better, especialy if specialized in it. Not to mention many of their combo based boon support options are much more viable as builds then us taking Bombs and Turrets in our valuable utility slots.

Elixirs are terrible as boon support even when fully augmented with HGH, and there are quite a few places where we in my opinion should have some Combo Finishers where we don’t. Things like Grenade Barrage, Static Shot, Poison Volley, and many more that I don’t frequently play with.

I mean, I run what is basically an Elixir build. It doesn’t support anything. The only good support I offer is the Condi-Removal, and that even pales in comparison to what some other professions can do. I mean we do have ways to do some specific things such as a Dungeon Support build. I think those are viable, but I personally think it gives up way too much in other categories compared to what other Support builds bring.

From my point of view, Xeph is one of the ones that care the most about this game. He understands dev limitations and is willing to change his point of view during a discussion. Xeph is probably one of the best candidates around for this sort of thing. Perhaps it wasn’t the right move to replace Zoose, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with Xeph.

Pretty much every profession I imagine wants their own profession questions to come up in this discussion. It’s not likely they will give us specifics to any of it, keep that in mind. Saying one thing and then deciding not to do it makes people a whole lot more angry then if they just don’t say it. It’s unfortunate that we aren’t mature enough as a community to handle that kind of discourse, but it is what it is. Maybe I’m wrong though, perhaps they will tell us some more details and we might handle it correctly. Last time though, even with what little they revealed it was a pretty horrible community reaction.

I’m actually just using Undead for now. It’s probably mathematically better for me to use Might stacking runes since I run HGH, but even then it didn’t feel quite like it was as much damage. Feelings aren’t really an accurate sense of measurement though.

Adventurer and Undead are solid full set options. You could enhance something else in the build too, or just focus on getting +50% Burn duration since that is the primary reason we want condition duration anyway. Burn duration is still working. I’m not sure on the best answer. The reason I prefer Nightmare was because it was +20% condition duration to fully apply +50% duration to everything, it gives a healthy chunk of condi-dmg, and the 6pc bonus is extremely strong.

I’d actually just prefer it be a puddle of direct damage that pulses 3 to 5 times. In my opinion we have enough Poison, but then I’ve been running Nades and Pistols forever so perhaps my opinion is tainted.

Unless it’s been very recently fixed without my knowledge, the testing in the Mists indicate that Rare Veggie Pizza and 30 Explosives woks, but not Nightmare or Lyssa. I did this right after the last patch.

I’ve never trusted the tooltip. Although I did notice that Rare Veggie Pizza actually shows up on the character sheet now.

Tool Kit can certainly work well with condition damage due to Pry Bar. Box of Nails won’t really do much though. You can very well run Tool Kit with conditions, but I do question running HGH without Elixir B. That may end up just being my own opinion though.

As an aside, watch the Nightmare runes. The +20% condition duration isn’t working at all. No condition duration increases from runes are.

Confusion to me is fine in sPvP and has considerable impact even there. This is kinda offtopic though. Then again, the answer has already been given. The build is 100 Nades and it works by controlling someone and standing inside them while using an activated Grenade Barrage and a Kit Refinement Grenade Barrage.

I do kinda wish that control and support was a bit bigger in our profession. At least in our builds that would be deemed viable.

I mean Flash Grenades, Glue Shot, and Glue Bomb to me all feel like they are pretty weak Control options. They are however in one of the stronger kits and weapon options we have, so I always feel guilty suggesting what would be a buff to Grenades, Bombs, or Pistols. As it stands though, Glue Bomb is just a worse version of Glue Shot. Glue Shot is just a ranged 1s Immobilize in most cases. Flash Grenades is like trading an action with an opponent for very little. Most Blinds carry a side effect, are instant, or pulse, but not Flash Grenades. I mean all these abilities are useful, but only because they are the only control options in those sets. I would still like to see these boosted in control or some other way.

The other thing I’d like to see is our survivability be moved more towards sustain and boon support. We have Healing Turret, why doesn’t it do any direct healing? Why aren’t the Med Kit pickups an AoE effect? Our Elixirs hardly support anyone but ourselves, and even when traited only do a mediocre job at it. Again though, it’s hard to make suggestions to what would be our most powerful builds though. I still think this stuff needs changes, but these types of changes would have to go into effect for every profession to maintain balance.

I mean as per the definition of what the devs have indicated, some of our strengths should be control and boon support. I’d like to see some more of that pushed. We have some adequate damage builds already, and although we need some more work there I think it’s more important to maintain the flavor of the profession beyond just Kits and Tool Belt skills.

Pfft, Glue Shot would still suck. As it stands it’s really only a 1s Immobilize, they’d be able to get out of that. It would be hilarious though to coat the land with Glue just from the visual side of it.

It’s exactly what everyone else has been saying. Our condi builds have great direct damage coefficients and diversifying the damage output has inherent advantages.

Yeah I’m not entirely sure why they gave Prybar a boost, but then I’m not entirely sure why WvW has double Confusion damage either. Awesome build Mask, I really like how it is put together.

Yes… did I get lost somehow in this discussion? I think I did.

Edit: I have confirmed that my path has indeed got me lost. Time to hit up some energy sources and wake myself up.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Armor_Mods

I’m not sure whether or not you are making a joke about how bad the trait is, or whether the trait is so bad you actually forgot about it. It is an impressively bad trait though.

I strongly support getting rid of Armor Mods, not only because it’s terrible, but because a good Gadget trait could go in alongside improving the base of many of the Gadget abilities.

Well we don’t know what the OP has for a build at all, I don’t know how we can recommend specifics. Different builds are going to have to tackle it completely different ways.

Magnet Pull is countered by a variety of things a Mesmer has though. Staff #2 and the Distortion Shatter can prevent any control you had going from that pull. That doesn’t even count utilities they could slot, or if they spot the Magnet animation and either evade or blurred frenzy. You can’t really say that Magnet → Prybar → Nades is an option, when Mesmers are inherently very good at breaking up combos and predetermined rotations.

Haha…. I’ve done that before. Gadgets in many cases just don’t bring enough to a utility slot for an Engineer. A single Gadget choice once in awhile can be a great addition to a build, but a Gadget build hurt my brain in both the conception and the attempts at making it work.

Lyssa, Lich, and Nightmare are broken. That’s the main conclusion I came up with. Rare Veggie Pizza works though.

There are multiple contributions to this issue. Basically, don’t use the Play Now! button. The people in the servers though should not be dueling on 16-man servers. Unless they want randoms anyway.

It’s going to depend on the build. 100 Nades for example is in a disadvantage against them, while Condi-Burst has the advantage. The previous one being a Power-based damage variant and the latter a Condi-based damage variant. Mesmers are very good at mitigating burst damage, but terrible at shedding conditions.

Some of the most basic tips I can give you are from a previous post of mine.

Ayestes.1273:

• Dodge roll into the clones when they shatter. This triggers their explosions. A Shatter mesmer’s damage is mostly in these shatters. Mitigate them and you mitigate the vast majority of what they can do.

• Move away from the Mesmer if possible. Mesmers need you to be close to deal their real damage. Unless they have a Greatsword they have no real way to deal damage in this long range case, and without the Staff they are incredibly weak defensively beyond the trickery. AoE slows in particular can make it very easy to pick off Mesmer stuff.

• Move all the bloody time and learn to recognize the leaping clone. This leaping clone is the very beginning of the burst combo that you are going to be hit with. If you can keep away from it and/or dodge the follow-up then you have fully mitigated the combo. The other way to start the combo is with the Magic Bullet stun, so dodge roll that projectile if possible as well and stun break it if you get caught while having that cooldown up.

• AoE is pretty key in dealing with clones in general. This won’t stop the primary combo of clones if you get caught in the burst cycle, but beyond a Mirror Images burst while you are Immobilized it’s completely feasible to cleave them down. If you do get immobilized, make sure you use whatever invuln options you may or may not have.

• Recognize Distortion. They are invulnerable during Blurred Frenzy and their Distortion Shatter. Don’t waste valuable cooldowns during this period. I’ve seen far too many people try to burst a Mesmer I have targeted with Quickness for example. They are literally invulnerable during their burst combo, keep that in mind.

• Best advice in general though, is to go play one.

Condi-Removal and Invulns are generally useful to avoid Shatter damage if you get caught. Know how to break the Illusion AI though. Once you’ve got that, only their CC will allow you to really take any damage.

Unless of course it’s a Phantasm or Condi Mesmer, in which case all of this advice isn’t necessarily accurate. This is all based on a Shatter Mesmer, the most common build.

I would second that that an easy hotjoin lazy character would be a Phantasm Mesmer. Not going to be the most effective build in the world, but you don’t need to in Hotjoin. You have plenty of backup plans and as a Mesmer can often escape the worst of situations.

I had actually though that there was already some form of additional temporary MMR boost for having queued up with a team innately. This being their system that makes it more difficult for solo/duo queue players to meet up with team queue players. I could be mistaken though, since that’s an assumption with nothing more then conjecture based on previous dev discussion.

The real crux of the problem comes down to two things, fun and validity of a ladder. The differing gameplay experiences you get between solo/duo vs. solo/duo, solo/duo vs. team, and team vs. team. The only frustrating one that exists is solo/duo vs. team. It’s frustrating for the solo/duo side. Even if there is appropriate changes to the MMR rating that bring the win% to 50%, the game is an entirely different beast. You are playing against people that in this case have teamwork as a superior attribute to your team. That means you make up for in other areas, which likely comes at least in part from personal skill. This creates a game experience where many people will feel very obviously better then their opponents and yet have a real chance to lose depending on the teamwork. That in my opinion, would be frustrating. It would also be frustrating on the other side of the equation. You want things to be as fair as possible. You don’t want to go up against people that have a huge teamwork boost over you, nor do you want to go up against people that have a huge personal talent boost over you. It’s simply less fun and can be extremely frustrating. This also assumes we can come up with some equation and memory for what would create an accurate assessment of a premades MMR boost.

The other side of the coin, is as was said deals with the legitimacy of a ladder. I’ve seen many posts that scream misinformation here, but the bottom line is a solo/duo queue MMR in a team oriented game works. There are many games that I could use as evidence for this. If you’ve played in the tournament system in this game as a solo player and ended up against non-premades with any regularity, you will know that it’s actually fairly easy to carry a team in that solo-like environment. Solo/Duo queue MMR will work in GW2. Introducing any attempts at balancing that against team queues destroys that legitimacy, especially since coming up with an equation that actually deals with this sort of thing is incredibly complex. You’d have to rate the performance of each person with another person. I might do much better with my brother then my random guildmate I’ve never played with, for example. How do you rate that accurately? You could approximate it all and average it all out, but that means someone somewhere is playing with an advantage in the system and that destroys the legitimacy.

When it comes down to it, bringing in a separation of the solo/duo queue and team queue not only seems much easier to accomplish, it will increase the amount of fun that comes with sPvP and increases the legitimacy of a ladder. Creating less frustration situations is paramount to the enjoyment of sPvP. I’ll admit I quit playing sPvP when I get matched against premades repetitively. It’s simply not fun. I’ve even won a couple, but it still wasn’t a fun game. In terms of the ladder bringing in solo/duo and team together in that ladder just makes it meaningless to anyone that is queuing mostly as solo/duo. It also wrecks any team player that also decides to play solo/duo. The answer is pretty clear cut to me. The eventual solution is to separate the queues and consolidate the 8-team/2-team format for now.

Ostricheggs.3742:

10% extra condi duration in addition to the 30% from the explosives tree makes it a 3 second burn. I’ve tested it repeatedly for months, that’s the way it works.

IMO it’s far better than shrapnel in all respects except for AOE spam, which is only effective in PvE and WvW.

I need to retest it, I actually came to the opposite conclusion a couple days ago. I also was mostly testing the Condi Duration bugs to see what was working. I was testing it with Sigil of Smoldering then 2/6 Baelfire though so I had 40%, 45%, and 55% totals. Unfortunately Nightmare isn’t it’s +20% self anymore due to the bugs so I didn’t really test the 50% again. That used to be the mark where it got the extra time. Maybe I was really messing something up that day, hmm.

As to the topic, Shrapnel really needs a constant application to be effective while Incendiary Powder can be much more immediately effective. I only use Shrapnel in PvE like situations where I’m using both Grenades and Bombs to proc the bleeds. Incendiary Powder requires crit to fuel it though, but most of our builds have crit just because of this trait.

I actually have been without a team for a month or so now and even without peels and the like I think the build is incredibly powerful. I don’t think there is a single matchup where all hope is lost, and in the vast majority of situations it seems we have the advantage. As Ostricheggs has said, we have a lot of survival skills for one when you look out how much damage we can output .

Nightmare runes not granting 20% duration now and instead granting 0% kinda sucks in the meantime though. I feel like I’m doing less damage with Might stacking variations instead, but it’s difficult to tell.

Not that Tool Kit isn’t awesome, it just isn’t needed. You will simply kill any other glass cannon before they kill you. Elixir S is enough to avoid any bursts that get beyond Blind and Evades. Most glass cannons have very little condi removal, and even then condi removal isn’t that effective against these conditions due to the variety. Elixir B is key to an HGH build and is the only source of Swiftness you can scrape up. You can’t let that go.

Mesmers for example, lack condi removal. Once you hit them they are pretty much already dead. Mind Wrack cooldown won’t come up again before they are simply dead, even if they play safe in Staff. It’s a quick fight either way, but it is definitely in favor of the Engi. Teldo vs. Xeph is an example of some high level known players that have also come to this conclusion.

You don’t need more defense in the build when you kill opponents before they can kill you. You are just as if not more threatening damage wise in a fight against a glass cannon. People seriously underestimate the damage this build will output.

I will agree though that this build is one of the easier of any Engi build to run. Geomancy and Grenade accuracy are about the subtleties in the build beyond the usual knowledge of knowing how to avoid an opponent’s damage.

No Shatter Mesmers don’t really counter this spec either because they lack condi-removal. Avoid any of the Shatter damage while not bursting when they have Distortion and you pretty much get a free win.

Corrupt Boon though is good at dealing with Bunkers because it overloads them with conditions and makes them vulnerable to the Fear. Necromancers most definitely do not suck at dealing with Bunkers though, as conditions are actually your best bet at taking them out. I really think you are a bit too extreme in your opinion on this, but then that’s just my opinion.

Nade Accuracy is important yeah, you need to be able to land pretty much full combos. It’s also possible that I underestimate Necros though, which is why I like the discussion because differing perspectives are useful. I don’t think Rabid would make the difference between viable and unviable though, since Rampager’s works very well for many others.

The Vuln stacking is more useful for protecting the conditions then increasing damage, but it does increase damage and is useful in team fights regardless.

It’s been a great discussion though, I like it.

Yeah they usually play on Fridays.

hackks.3687:

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I can’t really agree with much of any of this.

Oh no I welcome discussion on differing viewpoints just fine. A Necro though, and yeah this is something I recognize as my opinion, is much more vulnerable to condi-removal then this damage. A Necro can control conditions much better and can strip the boons off no problem (and is underestimated as an Anti-Bunker in my opinion as well), but by simply applying regular doses of condi-removal that picks off the bleed stack a Necro’s damage is largely negated. I’ve also never felt threatened by the Necro’s direct damage in their Condi builds, but I actually don’t know how much their damage is diversified so while I think Engineer’s have an advantage here I’m not really certain of it.

It’s possible I’m underestimating the reliance on Might stacking with a Rampager Amulet, but that’s because I’ve vigorously tested it and I personally like the Rabid Amulet. Not to mention, since I use Sigil of Geomancy this build actually only hovers between 7 to 15 Might stacks. I’ve never had a problem killing someone when I was low on Might stacks. The only time I use Elixirs intentionally for Might stacks is B on cooldown, and Tossed H and B if I both don’t need the condi-removal and am not using a damage cooldown. I agree that intentionally keeping Might up is impractical in the build. As stated though, it’s my experience I don’t need it. I’ve even experimented without HGH before, but I find that whatever I can reach doesn’t make up for what is essentially free damage to me. Even in the worst case scenario the Might being stripped, it doesn’t take long to recover some of those stacks.

Just flat out AoE damage appears to be enough utility for me. I’m paraphrasing Phantaram from Teldo’s stream when he was talking about lacking control skills, but he mentioned what better control is there then someone being dead? Elixir X unfortunately has that RNG element, or else I might consider it. Supply Crate though wins fights just as hard as Tornado would to me, beyond trying to Neutralize a point which other builds/professions can do.

Oh yeah the defense is lacking, but it’s there. I played for the longest time without Elixir S and just Nades/Bombs/Elixir B. I honestly felt my survival was fine because of the Blinds. We clearly disagree with how strong Blinds are though, so yeah I guess we will leave it at that.

I mean I guess our experiences with it simply differ. I think it’s more competitive then 100 Nades is. I know that citing other people’s opinion may or may not matter, but discussion on Teldo’s stream indicates he feels the same way. As devastating as 100 Nades can potentially be, Condi-Burst is more reliable in terms of dropping someone to dead. At least to me, anyway and it’s especially the case in terms of Bunkers.

Brvtvs.1572:

Ayestes.1273:

Actually it works even better in those environments, because you don’t get focused as often. Even when focused, Elixir S / 50% Toss Elixir S often deters them from focusing, and they often don’t refocus.

It’s an incredibly good dueling build as well, but I honestly can’t pin down a specific reason as to why.

Because people literraly kitten themselves seeing so many conditions on them whilst taking massive dmg and start to panic and mess up and job done …..

Haha, that is the reaction I get on teamspeak when playing hotjoin with guildies. I did mean that even in situations against those I’d see as calm, collected, and skilled it does well in those situations as well. Now that Empathic Bond is much changed, Rangers are pretty easy too.

Kimbald.2697:

Retaliation needs a cap on the player recieving it…

Yeah that’s one solution. I always thought that being dinged for Retaliation at a maximum of once per second would be enough. There are a lot of potential solutions though.

Also depends on how far SoS slides down.

Actually it works even better in those environments, because you don’t get focused as often. Even when focused, Elixir S / 50% Toss Elixir S often deters them from focusing, and they often don’t refocus.

It’s an incredibly good dueling build as well, but I honestly can’t pin down a specific reason as to why.

Defektive.7283:

Realistically, a week if it’s going to involve a bunch of code changes and validation, testing and deployment.

I agree with this, but that also means it’s a week that isn’t necessarily spent fully on other things. It’s been mentioned before that they are really utilizing their priority system, and it’s completely possible they have things above random maps.

I mean I want random maps as badly as you do, but there are other issues I’d place above that at the moment.

• You don’t need the HGH stacks to do damage. You do just fine damage without it. They are merely a bonus.
• Group utility is fine. You have AoE Blinds and Downed State Security. Not to mention most of the damage is AoE, and since it’s extremely high damage to begin with it’s very effective. It’s a Team Fighter and Anti-Bunker build.
• Burst doesn’t really remove anyone that fast from play anymore unless you find someone without cooldowns or doesn’t know what they are doing. It takes time to wear away their cooldowns so the burst can land, and Condi-Burst kills them just as fast in those cases if not faster.
• Might stacking comes naturally from doing battle just fine. B before a fight, auto-B at 75%, H to obviously heal, S to mitigate damage, thrown B/H to condi-remove or while using line of sight, or thrown S to secure a stomp. Again though, the Might stacking is just a bonus.
• For such a high damage build the Blinds and Elixir S utility is plenty of defense. Supply Crate is only icing on top of that.

Necros are comparable certainly. There are advantages and disadvantages to it all. Terror burst is less damage then an Engineer’s condi burst though. Epidemic is a huge advantage to the Necro. Death Shroud is a damage soak while Elixir S and Blinds is damage avoidance. Necro condi-dmg is also much more vulnerable to condi-removal, since it’s all based on the Bleed. If you want my opinion on what is flat out better though, I’d pick the Engi. Honestly though… why not both? Terror and Epidemic on top of Condi-Burst is flat out annihilation.

Omnomberry food did need to be nerfed, but you are completely right that Retaliation against many things such as the Flamethrower is a bit ridiculous in these extreme cases. Extreme cases that are actually quite frequent with multi-hits and AoE combined.

Even then if you trigger the Sigil one second before a swap the Battle Sigil would be prevented. It can sorta work, but I think you’d be better off with Corruption or something that is cooldown independent instead.

Geomancy is definitely the highest damage Sigil choice for the build. That’s pretty much without a doubt in my mind. The only downside is it forces close range, but then Grenades are so much easier to land close up anyway.

Yes the damage HGH and all the Might Stacks give makes up for some of the Condi-Dmg lost, but you have the same amount of Might Stacks with the higher condition damage regardless. That’s condi damage you will never be able to get back. Rampager makes up for it with direct damage, but there is still a trade-off primarily because Precision isn’t really that great once you can trigger Incendiary Powder regularly.

The difference between damage is actually fairly small, but it is a strength of the build so maximizing that aspect is a strong choice. With Rampager the direct damage is greater due to the increased Power and Precision, but it comes at a loss in Condition Damage. The increased Precision does not make up enough Condition Damage in on-crit procs, primarily due to the internal cooldown on Incendiary Powder. That loss in Condition Damage is pretty meaningful though, but the direct damage increase is greater then what is lost simply because it uses more of the stat pool on offense in general. There is also an advantage in damage diversification as well.

On the flip side, the defensive potency of over 500 Toughness in a build that already has a high Health pool of 18k+ is actually quite meaningful. This is a choice that loses a little damage, and gains a moderate amount of survival. It works against the spirit of the build in terms of reducing the burst though, which is why the choice is even legitimate for Rampager in the first place. Excelling at one thing at the cost of another is viable, but it’ll reduce your staying power. Thus, it’s a choice that I encourage people to make themselves by trying out both.

The build is certainly one of the easier to play though, especially if it’s being played with Sigil of Battle. I don’t think personalizing the build though deserves rhetoric about re-rolling though.

I wouldn’t take a Shield with this build, there are ways to do Pistol and Shield but you really need the Burning in order to have your damage in this setup. Rabid will help you survive a bit more though. Carrion can’t really be used because it relies on Incendiary Powder to keep the Burning outside Blowtorch. You should try it yourself though with both Rampager and Rabid, make up your own mind. Everyone seems to have different answers after playing it themselves.

The largest portion of your damage is in Blowtorch (global #1), Grenade Kit Swap – Geomancy Sigil (instant), and then Shrapnel Grenade (global #2). It’s something like 2k to 3k direct damage, over 1.5k condition damage per second of pressure, and if was uncleaned is over 20k damage in the end.

This is a very well done build, I like it a lot.

Tornado with Lightning mode is actually a lot of damage. I honestly find Rampage to be terrible, which is why Elixir X is meaningless to me. There was a suggestion previously that would allow us to pick from 3 random elites, taking some of the RNG out of it while preserving the flavor. It would also allow Condi builds to actually have something possibly worthwhile in Elixir X.

Mortar needs a range boost (1600), radius boost (300), 10-cap AoE limit, and removal of the 2s cooldown on #1. That’s probably all it needs.

Supply Crate is fine I agree. If there was ever a dream come true here though I’d totally take a Rocket Turret over a Flame Turret in this though.

Here’s a link that may help you in your endeavor.

Condition Warrior Guide

Indeed, Tranquilizer Dart has a longer cast time but the cooldown animation is much longer on Explosive Shot. They end up firing at very similar rates.

With a Rampager Amulet it isn’t that survivable no. The only thing it has is Toss Elixir S, Elixir S, couple Blinds, and sorta some Snares. Rampager undeniably does more damage then a Rabid focused variant, but Rabid gains a lot more survivability then it does in terms of damage loss though. In the end though, Rampager does what the build tries to accomplish better and Rabid still isn’t going to make you a tank by any means.

The damage though, is extremely high. Extremely high Burning uptime, 6+ Bleeding stacks uptime, Confusion, Poison, Retaliation, and moderate Direct Damage output all create a lot of damage when added together. The bursty portion if it can be applied in under two “globals” as well. The damage are very resistant to most condition removal and all conditions can be reapplied with ease. HGH boosts the damage to what would be considered extremely high.

Is it OP? Probably not, but it’s certainly competitive and probably the most viable build we have in tPvP right now.