Guild Wars 2

Flamethrower can be tough to use in PvP and WvW mainly because of what happens when you encounter either a very mobile ranged player or someone who rushes you then kites cirlces around you. Personally, if someone comes at me with the FT i know that if i stay mobile and out of the cones typical range and width their dps decreases immensely. One strategy I use to pull off a full FT #1 would be to maximize the amount of cripples you can apply. There is a trait in the precision tree that when you immobilize you also cripple for 5s, which is great because if the player drops the immobilize the cripple will still be there. Also, in the tools tree, if you pick the trait that allows you to create a spell when kit swapping in addition to the trait that allows the thrown wrench and wrench smack to cripple you will be a cripple machine when using the toolkit. Siege can be fun with the FT because you can blast through walls and doors with it to kill defenders on the other side. As well, you can melt down a ram on the other side of your keep which is always fun.

Switching between toolkit and FT is a great idea as the TK is just a great kit in general. Magnetic pull is one of my favorite skills in the game period. A 1200 range yank that when used right can yank a defender off of a keep wall is just glorious. The prybar skill, when it crits, hits like a truck. Gear shield has saved me from many a burst thief as they will typically waste a bunch of initiative/conditions on their burst.

One piece of advice I have from playing a FT eng for many hours is this. Don’t rely on juggernaut to either might stack you into high DPS or to save your life. Its a nice bonus for sure. But a great way to end up having a flag planted on you in WvW is to rely too heavily on one kit, especially one notorious for missing. For me, a full rotation between rifle, FT, TK, and either an elixir or elixir gun maximizes my potential. Remember, you could have a full 25 might stacks but if your not hitting the guy…what does it matter? My rifle downs more people than my FT because its consistent not because it does the most damage. But does it help to swap into my rifle with 6-7 stacks of might just sitting there? Definitely.

On a side note…I really wish the FT would apply its burn on the first pulse of #1 rather than the last. Getting that burn condition on someone right away would mitigate the frustration of not getting a full pulse off.

My eng Phosphor!

These runes have been a pretty awesome find. Running a 0/30/0/30/10 build with sitting duck, hgh, juggernaut, and elixir traits. I use FT in combination with the runes, jugg, and hgh to have a consistent burst of 15-18 stacks of might. Throughout battle I rarely see my might drop below 10 and with proper elixar rotation you can maintain more than that. Elixir H, B, and utility goggles provide a nice mixture of boons and specifically a source of almost perma fury. I can’t say enough about sitting duck in combination with all this. Might doesn’t seem to do for us engi’s what it does for other classes but when your stacked with might and facing an enemy full of vunerability then your damage can be impressive. In a mixture of Knights and PTV gear I typically have a FT pulse ranging from 2500 to over 3000 not to mention proc crit boons/conditions like crazy. Take your choice of p/p or rifle to take advantage of sitting duck. I love when you have a well placed glue shot and put vunerability on a whole pack of mobs. Of course you could also run sitting duck with the trait that procs vulnerability on crit and then maybe a sigil that procs vuln on crit and see what kind of stacks you could get. Granting the party might and fury has given noticeable differences in dps especially if you decide to swap in a healing kit instead of the elixir. I haven’t even tried the might granting sigils so who knows what you could achieve with those.