Guild Wars 2

Sporadicus, have you tested how inefficient +healing is? Losing one of your stats that could be power, precision, toughness or vitality, in favour of healing is simply bad. The amount of healing you get from +healing, is extremely insignificant.

And honestly, warriors with the shout build are extremely useful.

With the rune of the soldier, and the right traits, every shout removes a condition, heals for a very significant amount 2000-3000 and has an additional effect. Shake it off removes a further condition, for great justice adds might and fury and fear me/on my target help your team by controlling your foe.

Then, you can even trait the warhorn, so that it converts a condition on 2, 16s cooldown AoE buffs.

Nothing an engineer does can rival this… and this a warrior does while being supremely mobile and without silly restrictions or relying on regeneration. The amount of healing from 3 shouts, can rival a self heal.

Elixir X should just be made a normal, buff elite. No transformation. The RNG and the loss of so much is not worth it.

I don’t know many elementalists who slot it, nor warriors who slot theirs, and we have it worse than them.

And underwater… is just even worse. Yes tornado can be powerful, and so can plague… but its a 50/50 chance. I use a power build. Nothing describes feeling useless like getting plague underwater.

Furthermore… why haven’t they given something viable for underwater condition damage? Grenades and speargun are power based…

I thought speedy kits worked like that anyway? WTF.

And invigorating speed is indeed a nerf. Shame.

Except its not Achmed, its not. Regeneration is a terrible boon, and having 5000 regeneration buffs means nothing since it stacks in duration, not in intensity.

There are other classes that don’t have as much regeneration, that do a much better job at support, and their regeneration is just as good as ours. A ranger can simply lay down his healing spring heal, for AoE regeneration, that’s it. One simple, effective source.

I honestly think the boon should be redesigned to stack in intensity, because it ticks for such low amounts, and in the end, what ends up happening is huge durations, that do nothing for you.

I don’t know why anyone hasn’t mentioned this, but armour mods is objectively inferior to a warrior version of it.

Warriors have a trait, that is also grandmaster, that gives them 5 seconds, every 15 seconds. That is some great uptime.

Engineers have a trait, that is grandmaster, that gives them 3 seconds, every 25 seconds. That isn’t so great.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I believe that the warrior isn’t necessarily more deserving of that greater uptime. Why? Well they have a lot higher base toughness, and a lot lot higher base health.

So really, you shouldn’t even be defending it, it should be obvious that this is simply an overlooked, badly designed skill from the days of them trying to change how it works during the betas. Your life ISNT on the line if you don’t defend arenanets every action, and there is no shame in pointing out things that plain suck and don’t work.

And the other traits, “acid coating”, you don’t value it, you don’t know anyone who values it. Maybe it does indeed suck? If a trait isn’t worth slotting, then that trait needs to change.

Always prepared is I’m afraid a bit of a bad one. I don’t know of anyone who actively takes an on ‘on downed’, ability, let alone this one because it has a few bandages. The only possible way I could see this being useful, is if it was somehow redesigned into an ‘on revive’, so that you somehow help the people you are reviving. And honestly, while bandages are nice, the opportunity cost of spending 10 out of your 70 traits, for a trait that doesn’t help you, and only happens when you are downed, is pretty dang high.

The answer, is that it needs a redesign, or a pretty big buff. The RNG element is just hilarious as well, who thought that was a good idea? Drop one or drop both. And who would ever pick it up? They likely haven’t used it if they don’t have an engineer alt, they will lose stats, lose sigils and any trait benefits, as they cannot possibly trait for something like ‘fireforged trigger’, so in reality, no one should ever want to pick up that from the floor, ever.

You do not have to pretend its perfect, but its pretty clear that these traits are awful, and need changes.

Packaged stimulants I have no place for ever, but I see its value.

Do be sure to include the tip about using toolbelt skills without a kit, it makes a large difference in PvP and a huge one in PvE.

I was really content with necromancers for some reason.

Could give them a whirl?

I dislike elixir X for a number of reasons:

RNG- you can’t know which one you are getting so using it, in place of your utilities, weapon skills, toolbelt skills and so on is a huge risk.

If I am ever in a situation where I can happily get both, then I likely am in no need of double health and lots of CC. But the point where I need tornado, or brute, I can’t tell which one I’ll get. So, you’re sort of stuck with a situation where its not really appropriate to use it.

I don’t feel transformations are really worth it honestly, unless they are game changing ones. The game changing one here, is Tornado, huge amounts of CC. Rampage? Not so much. Its mainly single target and does low damage. And, you don’t get your utilities and heal skill so… you might have double health, but is that really enough?

Only real reason I would use elixir X, is for the stability. Use it, toggle it off, keep the stability. Still not as good as supply crate then though.

My biggest issue is that I can’t swap to my rifle when doing this, to net someone, to stay in the acid.

An elite kit seems like a good idea.

Works like every other kit, same mechanics, same 1s cooldown, but it just has bigger implications.

I’d go with the mortar, but redesigned essentially.

My mortar has a dead zone, immobile and does less damage than grenades.

Only upside is the combo fields and the amount of knockbacks from skill 5.

But honestly, its not worth it.

Happens to me too.

Weird bug.

Its a bit hypocritical Coglin, to accuse someone of acting like a 3 year old throwing a tantrum, and then saying things like “good riddance” and telling people not to post threads.

Theres baiting, and theres being helpful. Being helpful is trying to find out if the OP has a particular issue we can solve, and if not, then kindly ignore them and their post.

Mesmer minions aren’t minions I don’t think.

They are their own unique thing I believe.

Since they are not an optional utility slot item, they are a class mechanic shared by all mesmers. Plus, they work really differently to minions, their appearance and length of life can vary. If your target dies, they die, and they contribute to shattering.

I think there are 3 categories of ‘pets’ really.

Clones- Mesmer, increase stats normally.
Pets- Ranger, can increase stats with traits.
Minions- Guardian, Elementalist, Necromancer, Engineer, Thief

PotatoOverdose.6583:

-One of the highest skill caps in the game.
-One of the most difficult classes with which to play/succeed.
-Odds are, you’ll spend the first 40-70 levels trying to find a build that you actually like/works for you.
-This is the music that plays in your head when you find ‘that’ build:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OWfTNwpWZY

The skill in an engineer, comes from making a build. I disagree that they are a hard class to play. I do agree with your second point, but it does not mean that it translates into actual gameplay.

When the chips are down, and you know what you want to do, engineers tend to be fairly simple enough to master. You always have access to your toolbelts, you aren’t restricted from them at any point, your kits have 0 cooldown, gadgets all work in a very simple way, nothing complex and elixirs are simply the classic ‘buff’ type utility.

Only complex thing I see with engineer is turrets, due to the positional requirements, and the fact that they rely on AI and have their own HP bar, but aside from that, engineers are fairly simple.

I got a warrior to level 50 myself, and gave up due to how BORING it was.

But whatever floats your boat dude. Hope your concerns are addressed.

Zenyatoo.4059:

Ive had this happen before. As near as I can tell it’s when the krait use their grapple move. Some interaction with it decides to launch you super high into the air.

I actually was able to land on top of some wreckage for a free easy vista completion using it. But then I wasnt able to duplicate it again.

I was fighting some krait, so it could be it.

I’m guessing it happens whenever you get pulled underwater.

Paulus magintie.7432:

YingMasters.2051:

My Elementalist.

How are you using a sword???

I have red writing saying my proffesion cannot use swords but im an elementalist.

Seems like a dagger.

Ive literally not been comparing a single build vs another build. I have no clue what you read into my post.

I’m not saying, nor have I intended to say GS build vs Grenade.

I’m simply saying that these are builds, which are at the top of their game. That isn’t comparison, its analysis of the game.

And the place I am indeed comparing things is in the depth of gadget builds, when compared with the depth of elixirs, and something as simple as a hammer. Its not apples and oranges, its comparing how two builds vary in depth, I am comparing the depth, not the practical application of the builds. And the point I was trying to prove is: turrets and gadgets have no depth. They are very simple and one dimensional, unlike other things.

Had this happen to me when I was doing an event.
I recall Arenanet mentioning a bug with rocket boots causing this, and I do recall that happening with rocket boots once. But from this, you can see I don’t have rocket boots equipped at all, so it is my belief that it isn’t an issue with rocket boots, but rather, simply CC in general.

coglin.1496:

Lyuben, come one now, I know your sharper then that. You should be well aware that the forums bug out for a lot of posters a lot of times, making it impossible at times to quote.

As well, just because you claim something is “not viable” doesn’t make it true. Turrets are certainly viable. Simply because they are not perfectly practical in all situations does not make “not viable”.

As far as your other presumptuous and incorrect claim that there is only one viable damage build. I am unclear what your point is about gadgets, as they are control utilities. Which seems odd for you to point out, because if your a full control build, you can certainly nutruelize any glass cannon build, by disallowing them to even act, which would basically negate all of their damage.

The point is this: viable, is one thing. But stacking up to other classes is another. Turrets may well be viable, but they certainly fall short in many cases, and are nowhere near ‘top’ tier damage. Top tier damage, is the greatsword warrior, the grenade engineer, the heartseeker thief and other such things.

And the issue with gadgets is: they are horribly limited in what their scope is. They have a single purpose, and that’s it. Slick shoes is simply a knockdown. It may also offer a faster run speed every now and then, but when you compare it to something like the grenade kit indeed, or a fully traited elixir, its scope and limitations are very clear.

So, the problem with gadgets isn’t that they aren’t good at control, the problem is that they are good at it, but only good at that, and when they are in the presence of things like elixirs, which allow for so much utility and use when traited. The opportunity cost for picking turrets and gadgets, and some kits such as tool kit and flamethrower is too high, you lose too much because other potential utilities and kits perform roles better, or perform more roles.

For example, a hammer warrior already has lots of CC, he has 3 just from the hammer, and 2 of them are great hard CC, and 2 of them are AoE. He can add a lot to his build, and he will be great at CC and other things, depending on what he adds.

But an engineer with gadgets, will just be good at CC, gagdets don’t give freedom to be good at much else. Elixirs do though, they give you the option of helping you survive with stun breakers and defensive boons, help you with offensive boons, help your allies with offensive and defensive boons, so supportive and can be very powerful condition removal, on short cooldowns. They simply have, like the likes of a warriors hammer, the ability to give a build multiple dimensions.

From the temple of Dwayna IIRC.

Cost around 250k karma for the full one.

Get grinding!

I don’t think anyone really was defending the guy in the video :S

Its fairly obvious that he just cuts and edits it so that he is shown destroying glass cannon stragglers, which that build excels at.

I don’t feel that it is a fair point though, to just say “stun break” and “dodge”, to every situation that burst happens. Burst does exist, and you don’t have infinite dodges, nor infinite stun breakers.

The real way to counter such a build, isn’t by denying his strengths exist, they do. He does a lot of damage at once and hits very hard, even a single hip shot does a lot of damage. Instead, focus on his weaknesses, which is lack of condition removal, lack of HP, lack of defenses, lacking a stun breaker of his own.

Simple enough: Go for the rifle, get the grenade kit and or the bomb kit, and focus your stats on power for your main source of damage.

How you play is up to you.

coglin.1496:

I will tell you this OP

Anyone claiming this

“They have only one truly viable damage build, that rivals other damage builds of other professions.”

Anytime you see a comment like this, it is a pretty safe bet that they are the last poster to listen too. I have noticed a lot of posters have a very narrow field of view and are incapable of thinking outside the box.

If you learn to use the tools at hand, you can handle anything really.

You know there is a quote tool, I’m using it right now. No need to act so passive aggressive.

And I’m not saying you can’t do damage, I’m talking about damage that rivals other dedicated damage classes.

You can’t honestly sit here and tell us that with learning to handle turret will ever make them viable, or a full gadget build something that rivals other classes.

Pretty much every build can solo PvE, but when you compare different roles that engineers can achieve, to the other roles that other classes potentially can, plenty falls to the side with the engineer.

This is about comparing it to the other classes if you read the thread, not about whether or not you can do well.

I have no doubt that you are very skilled at doing damage with turrets, but I doubt anyone would take you over a warrior with equal skill and his rifle/GS/Axes build.

Bloodtau.4672:

Lyuben.2613:

Bloodtau.4672:

Plus, don’t forget WVW doesn’t fully scale. You still have your kittened year vs his exotic gear. He will win no matter what build he would run.
Don’t let it bother you, Engineers aren’t anywhere near this good on a balanced playing field.

I disagree, its not that the engineer he faced was particularly good, he wasn’t really. He was just going through the motions of the build he was using.

In sPvP for example, I could run the same build and get similar results.

The reason that build shines is because it does huge burst damage, which really hurts low health and low survivability builds. Its like a hard counter to glass cannon builds. It wrecks them in a few seconds.

The thing you should note is: the build has the advantage you see. It does a lot of burst, it does it fast, and its pretty fun.

But you need to note that that was a snappily edited video. He has very little condition removal, damage mitigation and very low health and toughness.

He will die, and he only really excels at single target burst.

Its about pros, and cons, and that video shows the pros very well. But I doubt you will have as much fun as he did, when a slight breeze ruins your day.

The build listed is not that great in spvp any more. It was like 2 betas ago but not any more.

Agreed, but I am saying that I will get similar results as he did in WvW with it.

I.e, high burst damage that takes people down.

Its good for 1v1s and stragglers, but aside from that, its not that great in WvW.

Engineers, I won’t lie, aren’t in the best spot.

They have only one truly viable damage build, that rivals other damage builds of other professions.

Their support is fine when specced into it, but it suffers from poor damage.

Engineers tend to have quite a lot of CC innately, a lot of kits and utilities offer that but again, going into all CC does leave your other two roles very weak.

The biggest problem with the engineer really, is that the number of viable builds is low. Elixirs right now, are in a great spot, but when traited. For example, a few traited elixirs can offer you: stun breaks, damage buffs and great condition removal.

While on the other hand, things like gadgets only have a single dimension: a knockdown, a knockback, a launch, a stun break.

And turrets are honestly, very squishy, even when fully traited, and suffer from pretty poor damage, and immobility and have huge cooldowns while not offering much utility.

So what you are left with is really, that elixirs and the grenade kit are truly optimal and comparable to other classes, with a few others like the bomb and elixir gun kit having their place in some builds, but really everything else isn’t too on par and needing buffs.

Trait lines for the engineer tend to be more pigeonholed than other classes, whether you think that helps you or not. It tends to be:
explosive kits- explosives
pistol/rifle/flamethrower/elixir gun- firearms
turrets and shield- inventions
elixirs- alchemy
gadgets and tool kit, and kits in general- tools

There’s not a whole lot of divergence of traits, so focusing in on certain traitlines makes a lot more sense than other classes.

So overall? I’d say they are limited, but can be fine. Need of a good round of buffing to bring up most utilities up to the level of grenade kit and elixirs.

Bloodtau.4672:

Plus, don’t forget WVW doesn’t fully scale. You still have your kittened year vs his exotic gear. He will win no matter what build he would run.
Don’t let it bother you, Engineers aren’t anywhere near this good on a balanced playing field.

I disagree, its not that the engineer he faced was particularly good, he wasn’t really. He was just going through the motions of the build he was using.

In sPvP for example, I could run the same build and get similar results.

The reason that build shines is because it does huge burst damage, which really hurts low health and low survivability builds. Its like a hard counter to glass cannon builds. It wrecks them in a few seconds.

The thing you should note is: the build has the advantage you see. It does a lot of burst, it does it fast, and its pretty fun.

But you need to note that that was a snappily edited video. He has very little condition removal, damage mitigation and very low health and toughness.

He will die, and he only really excels at single target burst.

Its about pros, and cons, and that video shows the pros very well. But I doubt you will have as much fun as he did, when a slight breeze ruins your day.

Fast Acting Elixirs- It works very oddly, seems only to pick and choose what it affects, but right now, it seems to affect healing slot, utility and elite slot elixirs. Anything else listed as an elixir isn’t affected. A real shame.

Threshold Skills- From my experience, it seems to trigger on the first hit AFTER you pass the threshold. I remember falling on my kitten from a hill, starting combat with some mob (I was at around 50% health) and the moment it touched me, the hidden flask triggered.

Automated Medical Response- I believe it has no effect on med kit, since the healing skill has no cooldown. The toolbelt skill is another skill altogether and isn’t the ‘healing’ skill technically. The advantage of the med kit is, that ingenuity can potentially reduce cooldown of self bandage by 30%, and of course, the trait that recharges toolbelts at 25% works with the self bandage toolbelt.

Yeah its a very typical version of the ‘burst discharge toolbelt’ build.

What you need: Rifle, Med kit, Rifle Turret, Tool Kit, Utility Goggles (optional), Supply Crate

For stats and gear: Sigil of air, berserkers gear, rune of divinity.

Idea is basically: get lots of huge crits from the toolbelt skills of skills, while spawning high critting ‘lightning discharges’, and since the toolbelt skill of utility goggles and rifle turret is instant, it does a lot of lightning discharges at once. But this build, he toggled utility goggles for grenade kit, I respect that really, grenade barrage is huge burst.

Its a very squishy build, and it only really excels at one role, so while it may make for some nice videos, I wouldn’t recommend it for anything other than trolling stragglers and niche sPvP scenarios.

Engineers, I won’t lie, aren’t in the best spot.

They have only one truly viable damage build, that rivals other damage builds of other professions.

Their support is fine when specced into it, but it suffers from poor damage.

Engineers tend to have quite a lot of CC innately, a lot of kits and utilities offer that but again, going into all CC does leave your other two roles very weak.

The biggest problem with the engineer really, is that the number of viable builds is low. Elixirs right now, are in a great spot, but when traited. For example, a few traited elixirs can offer you: stun breaks, damage buffs and great condition removal.

While on the other hand, things like gadgets only have a single dimension: a knockdown, a knockback, a launch, a stun break.

And turrets are honestly, very squishy, even when fully traited, and suffer from pretty poor damage, and immobility and have huge cooldowns while not offering much utility.

So what you are left with is really, that elixirs and the grenade kit are truly optimal and comparable to other classes, with a few others like the bomb and elixir gun kit having their place in some builds, but really everything else isn’t too on par and needing buffs.

Trait lines for the engineer tend to be more pigeonholed than other classes, whether you think that helps you or not. It tends to be:
explosive kits- explosives
pistol/rifle/flamethrower/elixir gun- firearms
turrets and shield- inventions
elixirs- alchemy
gadgets and tool kit, and kits in general- tools

There’s not a whole lot of divergence of traits, so focusing in on certain traitlines makes a lot more sense than other classes.

So overall? I’d say they are limited, but can be fine. Need of a good round of buffing to bring up most utilities up to the level of grenade kit and elixirs.

I named my Charr Necro Bast Drazet

Nothing too charry.

Just found two lovecraftian gods and mashed them together. Seemed to work ok.

leviathonlx.2437:

Nah I’d rather have the race that’s the sole reason I got the game for.

Sole reason?

Ouch.

Charr are, in my opinion, terrible, and only worthy of our hatred, bullets, steel and offensive magic.

At least with the way the games lore is set out, its likely that the charr, after defeating the dragons, will attack the civilized races and then, be wiped out as the truly civilized races wipe them out.

Land was the Charrs?

That’s a bit flimsy. It just goes back to ‘finders keepers’, goes to ‘who had it first’, rather than ‘who deserves it’.

Fact is, Ascalon was a peaceful and civilized nation, and charr were a bunch of rabid, stupid dogs. All they had was brute strength.

Their claim to the land is no stronger, than that of a bears, to America.

If it so happens that millions of bears suddenly destroy America, it doesn’t make them right.

I’m sorry, but undead is such a tired concept. And Charr, while being enemies in GW1 for a while, are somewhat of a unique take on a fantasy race. Undead? Every single fantasy/sci-fi and non realistic game has them.

Basically, from a lore perspective, it makes perfect sense. Charr always cling to Gods, and after the latest version of their Gods, they turned to worshiping the Dragons. And this leads the other races to stop the Charr and their dragon worshiping ways.

Plus, most GW1 players have never forgiven them for their actions regarding Ascalon, so being given the chance to kick the charr dogs around a bit would feel quite nice.

As I see it, as an outsider. I do sort of feel my heart sink if I see a necro in the group, its not your fault honest, its the balancing peoples fault.

But what I value is: scepter and conditions, condition and support.

So, something like the wells could help, the staff too.

Maybe:

Scepter/Dagger, Staff, Consume Conditions, Plague Signet, Epidemic and Plague form?

Krimpton.4879:

Here may be a suggestion for you…

I see from both screen shots you have posted that your party is still split up..

In the first SS one party member is still way up on the path away from you..

And in this latest SS 2 or 3 members of the party in the map screen bottom right are right off the map..

Maybe they are still fighting mobs you have missed in those areas ?
And that is why the event is not continuing.

Just a suggestion have a look.

Just another bug I suppose.

They just stop following me and do nothing.

Don’t think I’ve done a full run without a follower just doing nothing.

So far, 3 times on forging the pact.
And today, 4 times on tower down.

I wonder, how many more till I do this one?
How many more till I finish the story?

Possibly in the dozens.

That is a silly thing to assume OxBaker.

Why would that happen? Arenanet have already said they wanted to fix most of the issues, which are caused by them being kits.

I take it you are against auto attacks on kits? Sigils on kits? Access to stats? Access to ‘on swap’ sigils?

Because if you are for any of these, then changes need to be made.
And arenanet have indicated that at least two of those should be fixed.

And where did you get the idea that they would have the same limitations of weapons? No one is saying that at all, its just scaremongering from your part. They would still remember, cost a utility slot and you would not have individual sigils on the kits, just the one applied to it. So there would still be many limitations that weapons don’t share, with the benefit of having shorter swapping times.

I’m surprised you missed out Transmute and Shrapnel:

Transmute- 3%? Seriously… that is pathetic and it might as well not exist.

Just make it 25%, and give it a 15s ICD.

Shrapnel- 6%? Again… negligible and pathetic. I understand that it is not on crit, but even 0 precision means that you are going to get incendiary powder to trigger around the same amount of time, for a lot more damage.

I’d suggest beefing it up. But in a way, that doesn’t disproportionately affect grenades. So, maybe 2 stacks of bleeding for 7 seconds, on a 5 second timer with a 25% trigger chance. Making it similar, but not identical to incendiary powder. Plus remember, incendiary powder is ALL crits, while this is just explosives. Needs big big buffs.

Tallman.5193:

Lyuben.2613

OP, please include the tip about using toolbelts without a kit. Its a big deal.

What do you mean by this?

I mean of course, that it is a net loss for engineers to use toolbelt F1-F4 skills with a kit equipped.

If you use a toolbelt with a kit equipped, your sigils and weapon stats and weapon strength is not applied to the toolbelt skill.

If you use it with a weapon like rifle/pistol, then you do.

For example, my grenade barrage does more damage, triggers ‘go for the eyes’ and my sigil, simply because I use it without a kit equipped.

Using toolbelts with kits is a net loss for your performance, for no gain.

I use the sigil of air for example, and I trigger it from grenade barrage. But I don’t trigger it, if I have a kit equipped.

This is what your ‘fix’ did Arenanet.

I killed the krait last, as stupid and difficult as that was.

1000 distance is nothing…

And I can’t see this becoming different than a portal clone that the mesmers have.

Alongside promising to fix the auto attack bugs, and to extend sigils to kits. Arenanet briefly said that they were working on some way of customizing kits or changing how they look.

I’m guessing they probably meant extending dyes to them or something.

Foske.8346:

OmegaDestroyer.4782:

This issue has existed since the beta. It’s not a bug so much as a design flaw.

it’s neither, they said they where gonna make it remember your setting… but aparently it’s hard to do so

Its not hard, its impossible.

The issue is that kits are bundles, and the issue described, is an issue with bundles.

So, they have to change what kits are, or change all bundles. In either case, kits won’t be the same. Its not a simple ‘patch it in’, its in fact, a rather huge hole that they have dug themselves in.

I’ve been noticing actually Aralyae, that my hip shot does around about 400dmg, no crits or anything.

With my grenade attacks, doing around 250 each.

Grenade Barrage does huge damage though, 2000-3000

You have enough to unlock everything yes.

But I’ve still not unlocked mortar.

Mystic Rifle>Mortar

I can understand the point.

Maybe make speedy kits apply swiftness automatically every 5 seconds, if you have a kit equipped. Which, with the vigor trait would give it full uptime.

Its already pretty easy to get full uptime, with boon duration, you are given some reprieve regarding time.

I don’t believe that unnecessary buttom mashing, which achieves nothing, should remain if it does not have to. This does not have to exist, and could be simpler.

If button mashing got different results, than if it were automated, then I would disagree but currently, automated swiftness would give the same results as button mashing, so in my eyes, button mashing ought to go.

Spam AoE immediately at the general area where they stealthed, and then spam grenades/AoE at my feet. Stuff like jump shot, grenade barrage, bombs whatever I have on my build for AoE.

Smoke bomb and flash grenade are also good ideas.

Make em miss that backstab.

I had that conflict actually when I was running another build for my dungeon, I was running med kit, tool kit, utility goggles and either mine or battering ram.

In the end, battering ram was much more reliable and better at what it did.

Plus it had a useful toolbelt.

Consume conditions is undoubtedly better than PTD though…

5s shorter cooldown, and removing a condition= higher healing. So, remove a few conditions and you are getting more healing.

It also synergises with corruption spells and the plague signet.