There’s a time and a place for healing ele builds. I know some disagree, but there are difficult events where people do benefit from the passive healing you provide. Tequatl, understaffed Jormag, some events in Orr, events in the SW and WvW come to mind. I wouldn’t set myself on using such a build all the time, but it’s good to know that it’s available and how to use it. Ele achieves impressive damage, but it’s still primarily a supportive class (in my opinion.) So no, I don’t think you have to abandon the idea entirely or re-roll a guard. You can heal without building for it too, but the amount you heal for will be drastically reduced. I’m doing world completion on ele now, and it’s fun to come across people in lower level zones having trouble with a specific mob. Like the spider queen in Kessex. Switch to water and people start being vertical more than horizonal, it’s great.
Keep in mind you can be more of a hybrid class than you might think, since you don’t have to spec only for healing power or only for damage. Celestial gear come to mind, since the ele is one of the few professions that can make use of every single stat on celestial gear. I’m using three pieces each of berserker’s and assassin’s armor with celestial trinkets for world completion. It feels pretty versatile.
As far as what to do with your build around level 20, I’m going to leave that to more knowledgeable people. I made my ele prior to the new trait system, so I never had the particular experience you’re having. I can tell you with confidence though that it’ll get better when you hit 80/unlock all your traits.
Yep, spam it, or it won’t activate until the next tick. Just practice, you’ll get it. When there’s a lot of lag it still gets messed up, but it’ll be second nature eventually.
I’m not bored, but I’d love some SAB. I’d love some permanent SAB too.
(edited by Elegy.2159)
The item rarity colors come out very, very similar in most types of color blindness. In particular, the rare and exotic rarities are almost indistinguishable. In some other types, masterwork is also similar to rare and exotic.
Yep! No amount of messing with my monitor makes them easy to distinguish for me. I’ve worked around this quite well by keeping a rare fractal equipment box as the last bag in my inventory. If it’s there at the bottom, it’s rare. If it asks me if I’m sure I want to salvage it and it’s above, it’s exotic.
Next one is this one. Where am i
The secret garden jumping puzzle, in mount maelstrom?
I dub this the Lost Effect.
I love the LS. But I also loved Lost, so I don’t mind this comparison at all.
man, blasting 4 (or even 5 or 6 – you can blast 2 ft2) blasts at fire field would take u so long… it is cool when you have long fire field and your party helps you to blast – by 1 or 2 blasts from a man, but it is awfully annoing to do it yourself.
it is surely not the best way to play engi, why may even you need so much might uptime?
Sounds like a lot to execute, I know. After a while playing engineer though, it becomes second nature. That’s why I use the fire field from flamethrower rather than the field from bomb kit, as the napalm lasts a long 10 seconds. There are ways to stack even more might with it. It just depends on your preference. I prefer taking another kit rather than a turret for 2 extra blast finishers. It’s nice to be able to change skills out of combat so easily; you can you always switch up on the fly. Why so much might uptime? Well, obviously because it scales with both power and condition damage, which makes the baddies die faster. Extra might duration from runes applies to might you give to others as well, which helps them make the baddies die faster too. Engineer is often responsible for more than half of the might a party has, so the extra duration is well worth it, imo.
In general, yeah, grenades are better than flamethrower. Flamethrower’s autoattack sucks, but having it around for the fire field/blind/blast finisher and easy access to burning from the toolbelt skill is awesome. Especially if you’re relying on condition damage, since burning deals so much damage per tick. FT wasn’t designed to be a heavily damaging weapon, I don’t think. It’s more useful for the utility (and farming, lol).
(edited by Elegy.2159)
Yeah, turrets suck. The damage they deal is pitiful, and they’re easily destroyed. Even in PvE. Even if you trait to make them stronger. Thumper turret can offer some utility in that it functions as two blast finishers in one utility slot. But I’d only use it for the blasts, not leave it out. Net turret isn’t bad for “defend the perimeter” type PvE events, but I’d rather just carry a rifle for that.
I totally understand wanting to play around with different builds. As an engineer especially, since the profession offers a ton of diversity. It’s easy to lose your way making a build too, if you’re not 100% on the traits that are available and how they synergize with stats/weapons/kits.
Both of your builds make full use of the Firearms trait line, which is excellent for any engineer. I’d start with that. Grenades work great with precision, since you have two chances to crit per attack, and more if traited into Explosives for Grenadier. They’re also a great way to build up conditions. If you’re hellbent on using a turret just for funsies, net (for cc) or flame turret (for burning) wouldn’t be as terrible as the others. Grenades can take some getting used to, since they’re ground targeted. At longer ranges, you’ll be aiming more for where enemies will be than where they are (I primarily use them at mid to melee range). Some immobilization never hurts when you’re learning, but just opening with the chill grenades helps a lot. I anticipate you’ll tire of using a turret about when you get comfortable with nades. Rifle can immobilize too, so you’re better off just using rifle 2 and switching to grenades in my opinion. And flamethrower (the toolbelt skill) offers easier access to burning than flame turret. As well as a fire field, blind, and blast finisher, all with fairly short cooldowns. Flamethrower’s autoattack throws people off because those large numbers are just accumulated damage. It’s actually pretty weak. But great for tagging, and adding some fire! Who doesn’t love fire!
Personally, I’m a sucker for the BIG NUMBERS and trait fully into Explosives as well as Firearms, and run bomb kit always, toss up between grenades and flamethrower depending on the situation. And rocket boots, to escape immobilization, move faster, gain an extra heal if I need it with the blast finisher, and stack might. All in all a pretty common build, with a few tweaks. If you want something totally different, Tools is a very good trait line. And it’s great with tons of precision.
These are just suggestions, since you asked for some. Even if none of this suits your style, hopefully it gives you some ideas! If I were running a crit build (traited fully into Firearms and Tools), I’d run rifle. Rifle crits like an 18 wheeler, and it offers immobilization, gap opener and closer, a leap, and added vuln stacking. I’d take grenades, flamethrower, and toolkit as well. With 6 points in firearms, your condition damage will be -okay- even if you don’t gear for it. The toolkit’s shield skills are great for survivability and pulling mobs, and you can use it to add bleeds and confusion. Like the flamethrower, I’m not so keen on the autoattack it has, but I know people who are.
I’d take Precise Sights, Rifle Mod, and Modified Ammunition in Firearms. Or switch Rifle Mod for Juggernaut if you use flamethrower more than rifle or want the extra might/toughness over the rifle’s damage increase. In Tools – Speedy Kits, Scope (if you attack from range a lot) or Kit Refinement (if you attack at melee range more often) or Leg Mods (if being cc’d annoys you more than anything) and Adrenal Implant.
Even though a build like the above would focus strongly on crit chance, I’d use power as a primary armor stat. With no points in explosives, you’ll really need it. I’d use Berserker’s gear, but Valkyrie would be a viable option with less squishiness. Sinister or Carrion gear might be a fun option too, if you like the condition damage.
Have you ever tried Golemancer runes? They can be fun, and give a lot of precision and ferocity. The golem from the 6 stat bonus does use a knock back skill though, and can keep you in combat unintentionally. I’d run a rune with decent power, for the reason stated above. Like Elementalist, Ogre, Mad King, or even Divinity. If you gear for condition damage, runes of perplexity would be very strong. You can inflict confusion directly with tool kit. And rifle, flamethrower and tool kit all have skills that interrupt quite often.
Sorry for the novel. I didn’t set out to say so much initially. Let me know if any of this was helpful, or if you use some of it and improve on it. Best of luck!