You get a few seconds of super speed now when you attune to Air.
Afaik the old one was bugged and thus useless anyway so no loss here.
Ok, Ill admit I expected that to come out better for Assassins then 1 point..
But of note, its very easy to get more then 4 stacks of might. free power essentially.
100% uptime on FURY however, is not easy to get.
There is scope however, which would devalue stating crit a bit, as well as target the weak in firearms.
Interesting, I didn’t expected them to be this close; when I did the math a few weeks ago Assassin was only better than Berserker with ~15 stacks of Might and no Fury or close to 25 stacks of Might and Bloodlust with Fury.
Regarding Fury, a Ranger or Ele can provide permanent Fury, a Warrior as well if his allies are smart enough to pick up Discipline and use the Fury shout, and a Mesmer can double the duration of Fury.
XYZ on crit sigils have an internal cooldown, meaning their effect can only occur every 2 to 5 seconds, depending on the sigil.
Even with a 99% crit chance Firearms 5 only gives you barely 4 stacks of Bleed. Explosives V will only burn a single foe every 10 seconds, which means if you’re fighting more than a single foe keeping them all burning permanently will be difficult; even against one foe you properly need condition duration runes or food to achieve that.
In other words you’ll not deal that much condition damage.
Viable for PvE? Well, there are Flamethrower Engineers running around in Celestial gear that are doing “fine”, so I don’t see how your build shouldn’t do “fine”.
Good? No, Grenade Kit or Bomb Kit will give you between 20-50% more damage (properly even more if you run condition damage gear with a Flamethrower) and more support/survivability (Vulnerability, Immobilize/Cripple/Freeze, etc.).
Do you mean open PvE only or do you want to do dungeons, too? The top builds for them are different.
Full Berserker is better than full Assassin.
Even with a 30/0/x/x/30 build which favors Assassin the most you should at most change a few trinkets to Assassin.
Also, one more question… What about runes? I use 4 ruby jewels and 2 sup runes of… air I think.
For Bomb Kit the best is Scholar runes.
Because Grenade Kit deals also a lot of condition damage runes that increase your boon duration (so you have longer Might) or condition duration are also an option; however if you don’t want to get a second armor just for GK just get Scholar.
It does only grant Swiftness if you’re not already enchanted with Swiftness.
It should give 1 second in the above case, everything else is abuse-able.
edit: On a second thought you can properly abuse even that.
(edited by DesertRose.2031)
The only situation where I feel the new version is weaker is if you’re using Greatsword, now you cannot use Swoop twice. For pretty much every other situation I feel the new version is stronger.
You want this traitline change because YOU’RE IN PVP. Do you know how badly this would hurt us in PvE and WvW? So my answer is NO. We do not need anymore nerfs caused by the one mode most players don’t even touch.
These changes would be a flat-out buff for PvE.
Useless traits get removed or improved (yes, Bark Skin is useless in PvE), the trap traits get moved to the trait line where they should have been from the beginning, and we get some condition remove, something a Ranger is seriously lacking.
The new master trait would help give a power ranger a bit more defense by giving more vigor.
I’m not following you. What does Immobilize have to do with Vigor?
1. Not anymore. Nowadays it’s either sitting in Staff Fire auto attacking and casting Lava Font every ~5 seconds or using Scepter/Dagger, doing a quick Might rotation and getting your hammer out to auto attack.
I’m using the Lava Font build for a while now and even in open PvE I rarely swap out of fire.
2. There are 8 professions but only 5 party slots. A Guardian and/or Mesmer is often required so in the best case scenario 7 professions compete for 4 party slots, and thus at least 3 professions are left out. If someone says “<Profession’s name> sucks in PvE” they mean “a few other professions are doing it ~5% better”.
3. Eles have access to fire fields and blast finisher, so yeah, you’re expected to use them.
If you talk to the Mad King as a villager he will tell you to get lost.
Jumping off a cliff is a good way to escape.
- If you’re not running Grenade Kit Giver weapons are never worth it.
- If you’re running Grenade Kit and Rifle Giver is virtually never worth it.
- If you’re running Grenade Kit and Pistol/Shield (or Pistol/Pistol) is depends on your group. With a grenade Engineer no group should have problems to get to 25 stacks of Vulnerability against trash mobs. Against bosses you may spike over 25 stacks if there are more than two other professions who can inflict multiple stacks quickly, in particular Axe/Mace Warriors and Sword/Focus+Greatsword Guardians with Blind Exposure.
So my advice:
Giver Pistol and Shield, Berserker Rifle. Switch depending on team.
(edited by DesertRose.2031)
What would be a good setup for Flamethrower engineer? I saw already that soldier gear, which is a tanky one. Anything else?
Flamethrower hardly deals any condition damage so anything that boosts direct damage is most profitable.
The best set to increase direct damage is Berserker but if you’re running Flamethrower dealing damage isn’t your goal anyway so some tanky gear like Soldier is properly best; at best ask some PvP players what gear they’re using.
-Rabid gear is your optimal condition-based damage gear. (…) it works amazingly with grenades due to the Shrapnel trait.
Can it be you mean the trait Sharpshooter? Because the trait Shrapnel does proc on normal hits, not only critical hits.
He’s easy if you’re smart enough to use his candy corn fields and have one or two decent Mesmers around.
I once fought him with my Mesmer and around six other players and we quickly got him down to ~60% within a few minutes, then I messed up and died, and apparently I was the only Mesmer around so everyone else died, too. :-/
The trash mobs around him are a much bigger problem if you’re fighting him in a small group than the boss himself.
With reflection, group-wide Aegis, group-wide Stability and group-wide condition remove Guardians are often the anchor of many groups.
That sounds to me as what you’re looking for.
Could be different in WvW and/or PvP, though.
Move Trap Potency and Trapper’s Expertise and Trapper’s Defense into the Wilderness Survival Traitline.
+1 +1 +1
Yes please.
I don’t understand the use of the new master trait but all other new traits fill exactly the gap that I fell the Ranger has.
Use Signet of Stamina, with that you can dodge 50% more often. “Shake It Off!” or Balanced Stance to have a stun breaker can also come in handy.
For weapons I advice Axe/Mace and Longbow or Rifle:
Axe’s auto attack deals good damage, Axe #3 is a ranged cripple in case your foe runs away or you want to gain some distance, and Mace #5 is a knockdown which can give you a few seconds of breathing room. Both Longbow and Rifle have skills to keep a foe on distance or blind them so they can be useful when you have troubles staying alive in melee against a foe.
You’ve made the right choice regarding traits, but 10 points in Strength for Power and Two-Handed Mastery, and 10 points in Arms for Precision and Deep Strikes; you properly will be using Healing Signet, Signet of Stamina and Signet of Rage (elite) so it should boost your damage quite a bit.
In my experience the typical PvE Warrior (meaning: no bunker) is actually quite squishy because you hardly have access to skills that help you stay alive; you could give Endure Pain a try as your third utility but I wouldn’t trade it for Banner of Discipline. Basically you have to kill your foe faster than it kills you and hope nothing unexpected comes at your way.
You have to be in combat.
edit:
Just read you’ve tried in combat as well; hm, no idea then.
The Healing Turret will deploy a field around it every 3 seconds or so, normally this gives you only Regeneration. However if you activate Cleansing Burst the next of the fields the Healing Turret deploys will have the effects of it, it’s not immediate. You will notice it visually by the water that sprays out of the Healing Turret and a different sound.
For optimal use of the Healing Turret deploy it, use Cleaning Burst and then either pick it up again to reduce its recharge time (if you want to only heal yourself) or explode it (to heal your allies or as an emergency heal).
edit:
The water field of the Healing Turret lasts for several seconds, only the water field of the Tool Belt skills lasts only 1 seconds.
1. If you mainly want to use the Flamethrower properly the best trait distribution is 0/25/0/20/25; with that you’ll get all the important traits for Flamethrower and the damage traits of Firearms and Tools. However due to how bad the auto attack of the Flamethrower is you shouldn’t use Flamethrower as your main weapon if you care for efficiency.
Flamethrower is very good during many events because you can easily tag a lot of mobs and get exp/loot, though; its skills #2 to #5 are quite useful too. Also, unless it was fixed, it can also be used to attack attackers in front of the gate from the inside in WvW.
2. The main strength of an Engineer here is that he doesn’t need to kitten his damage by much to heal his allies. E.g. set up a Healing Turret, overcharge it and pick it up/blow it up takes only 1-2 seconds and heals your allies for 2.5k to 3.8k. Switching to Elixir Gun and dropping a Super Elixir takes again only 1-2 seconds and heals for 2k+. Healing Turret’s F skill and Elixir Gun #4 takes again only 1-2 seconds and heals for 1.3k.
A Staff Ele doesn’t deal its maximum damage for 13-15 seconds if he switches to water to heal, or a LH Ele up to 60 seconds if he drops his conjured weapon.
3. Awesome damage is an overstatement. The main strength of a Grenade Engineer is to provide 20+ stacks of Vulnerability and 9-15 stacks of Might; the direct damage is considerably less than other professions but because such an Engineer inflicts 15+ stacks of Bleed while doing the above the total damage is about equal.
An alternative is the Bomb Engineer which does slightly above average direct damage but only 6-7 stacks of Vulnerability.
4. There are builds that use Rifle as their main weapon, however for most builds the actual weapon is just utility.
So, explain me please flaws of 30/30/0/0/10 build. One of them is for sure lower crit damage bonus, but I get it from either my valkyrie set and zerker accesory…
Scope (Tools 20) will give you 10% higher crit chance so the crit chance of a 30/30/0/0/10 build and a 30/x/0/10/25 is almost identical (iirc 2-4% difference) but the latter build has 15-20% more crit damage. Also, the Tools 25 trait is 10% more damage while the Firearms 25 trait is only 5% more damage.
I run a slight variation from that:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFA2gEmKjuVAQKgS4BBMUwoQHiCWUKkDA
With Vigor from Arcane Power my endurance regeneration isn’t tied to channeling skills anymore so it’s useable with other weapons, too. If need be I can also run LH with this build.
If you want a build that’s even better for using with different weapons take a look at GuanglaiKangyi’s Pug Carry Variant.
Do you know what would happen if everyone who was like me got banned? We would have a stagnant warrior/guardian/mesmer dungeon metagame where all other classes are excluded because people wouldn’t know better.
Optimist. We would be still running Necros because their dark field are required for blind. :-P
PvE, WvW, PvP?
Engineer got a reliable source of Stability, (Toss) Elixir B.
More healing and Swiftness.
I can see the Staff being used in three scenarios:
- In open PvE to get the Swiftness buff; in that case the stats of the Staff doesn’t matter at all
- To tag foes during events; in that case the most important stat is weapon damage, and Power is a nice bonus
- To use it for an AH build; in that case Healing Power, Toughness and Vitality is most important
So, I think Cleric or Magi (for Vigorous Precision) are the best choices.
Desert, what’s wrong with static discharge? You are the first one I see claiming is valid option for a grenadier build.
If we assume that someone else provides the Might stacks for your group a SD build should deal the most damage; don’t quote me on that, though, I haven’t done the math if Scope might increase your damage more.
Yes.Thing is that you should use some tool belt skills on cooldown, right? So I don’t see the point in taking speedy kits instead of static discharge (at least in combat).
Unless you have 10 points in Firearms you won’t have regularly access to Swiftness, and thus no regularly access to Vigor via Invigorating Speed. If you don’t use Invigorating Speed then Speedy Kits is somewhat pointless during fights.
The 30 points in Honor would be for Empowering Might, not for Pure of Voice.
But I’ve noticed that putting those 10 points from Zeal to Radiance would make far more sense; it’s far more likely to face a foe with a condition than a foe that is burning. Sadly none of the Radiance master traits are overly useful for a GS guardian, maybe this:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlYg6CHFyKEf4ESODRCBtZAQEEmCMKjA-jwwAYfA0PEVAAA-e
Do the Static Discharge bolts and the Tool Belt skills gain the 15% damage increase from Deadly Mixture if you’re using Flamethrower or Elixir Gun?
This might help you:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Engineer-PvE-little-help/first#post2992442
Regarding your build:
The trait Juggernaut and Elixir-Infused Bombs conflict with each other, to gain full advantage of Juggernaut you need to be camping in Flamethrower, to gain full advantage of Elixir-Infused Bombs you need to constantly lay bombs.
I don’t like Greatsword on a Guardian so I’m not that well-versed how to make a good build using it but what I would run:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQJARWlYg6CHFyKEfIFSODRCBtPAQVFiHMFYUGB-jgzAYfA0PElBgK
or 0/15/0/30/25.
It gives you the ability to bring Consecrations, Shouts and group-wide condition remove, in other words what’s often expected from Guardians.
What then is the alternative to a non-AH DPS build that isn’t glass? Would it be wiser to do the opposite of gearing defensively but using offensive traits/utilities? I have tried a zerker guard with a DPS build and didn’t like it (it was a long time ago so I can’t quite remember the stat distribution).
Hammer with 15/15/0/20/20. If Berserker is too offensive for you you can try Soldier armor and Berserker trinkets.
If I would run AH I would use Hammer because it grants Protection 3 times for up to 5 players roughly every 3 seconds so AH gets triggered very often.
If you use Hammer I would use longer symbols (if you have no boon duration runes) or Empowering Might instead of 2H Mastery.
You’ve pinpointed yourself to Shouts but can’t take PoV if you want to get some condition remove (you have Soldier runes to compensate for that, though).
Overall your build needs allies to maximize it efficiency but you’re not giving much back, especially if you don’t use Hammer.
If Mantras would reset to their maximum number of charges if you have been out of combat for their recharge time I wouldn’t have any complains about them.
My option of Precise Sights:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Grenadier-build/first#post2987177
Well obviously I was hoping for a solid FT build utilizing HGH & Juggernaut to stack crazy amounts of might. I find myself hovering around 18-20 stacks right now and I’m not even optimized with the proper sigils/runes yet. Jugg just makes it so easy.
With Bomb Kit and some blast finisher every Engineer can give themselves (and their allies) almost constantly 9-12 stacks of Might, that’s why I don’t see why anyone would want to use HGH in PvE.
The problem with the Flamethrower is that it’s auto attack deals so little damage, to get most out of the Flamethrower you have to swap out of it ASAP which makes the Juggernaut trait useless. Both the Bomb Kit and the Grenade Kit give you more damage, more support and more survivability than the Flamethrower so you need a high pain tolerance to force yourself to use it.
The best solo build for Engineers is 30/0/0/10/10; you get permanent Swiftness and Vigor, even outside of a fight, which makes running through mobs much easier, and the Grenade Kit gives you already a lot of survivability with Blind, Freeze and up to 1.5k range:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fcAQBRExOiMqQnJqQ+95BAkWQIA-e
The last 20 points can be spend in Firearms to improve the Rifle, in Alchemy for better survivability or Tools for more damage, or a combination of the above.
This might interest you:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/86408-unique-advantages-each-class-brings-to-the-party/
Guanglai Kangyi clearly talks about PvE, why are you bringing up WvW in an attempt to debunk his claims?
You can get a Soldier set from AC, so if you don’t have a more defensive armor set yet that is an alternative to Rampager.
I don’t think the basics have changed:
Up until level 40-60 the attribute bonuses you get from your trait points are usually more important than the traits themselves, so put points into the trait lines that give you Power and Precision. If given the choice choose equipment with Power and/or Precision over everything else.
Get Signet of Air; 25% faster movement speed is great for leveling, and it’s a stun breaker.
Dagger/Dagger or Scepter/Dagger is basically a matter of preferences, play with the weaponset you get along better. Staff is also possible but tedious and less forgiving.
At level 40+ you can try conjures: Put 20 in Fire for more charges and 10 in Arcane Power for Vigor. To always have access to a conjure you may want to take two conjures.
The Machine Cult of the Warhammer 40k universe can be used as for inspiration.
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Adeptus_Mechanicus
1. Instead of overcharging a turret they have a single shot ability which aims for the target of the Engineer with a fairly low cooldown, e.g. Rifle Turret shots a single shot that cripples, the Flame Turret creates a smoke field where the Engineer is aiming, and the Net Turret shots a net that stuns etc. Engineers need more control over their turrets.
2. Picking a turret up should greatly decrease their cooldown, e.g. down to 15 seconds for every turret; that should mostly fix the mobility issue.
3. In PvE Metal Plating could greatly decrease the damage done to them by AoE in addition to the normal damage reduction.
4. Make them scale with your equipment.
Leveling
It has been almost a year since I’ve leveled my Ele and Guardian, after I’ve switched from Staff to Dagger/Dagger I don’t recall any major issues with either.
Open PvE
While both are pretty good I would say the Ele is a little bit better; Ether Renewal and 20 instead of just 10 weapon skills give them more flexibility and survivability.
Dungeons
Guardians can bring reflection, and in addition Stability and condition remove, thus making them a great addition to any team; the only other profession that can bring reflection (and since the patch 2 days ago also Stability and condition remove) is the Mesmer, thus those two professions are the core of most dungeon groups. While an Ele isn’t bad in dungeons it simply doesn’t bring such unique advantages.
Sword/Pistol or Dagger/Pistol Thief is a good partner for any melee, e.g. a Sword or Greatsword Ranger, because he can keep them save with Pistol #5.
Since you’re talking about level 80 I assume you mean PvE.
There are to my knowledge three big Ele builds flying around right now: The old-school Lighting Hammer build, the Fresh Air Lighting Whip build and the Lava Font build.
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83561-hamartias-sd-elementalist-build-dps-might-stacking/
Look at these builds and see if they catch your fancy.
Flamethrower is very good if your goal isn’t to deal good damage but to simply tag mobs for loot/exp, e.g. the “Defeat x mobs” quests in the Mad King’s Labyrinth; it’s just not good for pretty much anything else.