Guild Wars 2

If I’m running EG/FT with HGH then I use my PVT armour set with two hoelbrek, two fire and two strength runes for the 20% might stacking (60% in total) and a mix between ruby and emerald accessories. Weapon wise I use two berserker pistols, one with a fire sigil and the other with a strength sigil. The pistols are mostly there for duel sigils, though they still pack a reasonable punch.

For Zerg work then I tend to use a 10/30/0/30/0 HGH might stacking build. Take Elixir H and B with the EG and FT. If you take might duration runes then you should easily be able to sit at a consistent 13-18 stacks of might.

Now that the FT/EG traits have have all be knocked down a tier you could use something like a 20/20/0/30/0 and use Acidic Elixirs (boon removal) + 3 stacks of might on heal trait. I’ll need to play around with this to see if it’s worth loosing the extra crit chance for the increase in power and the 3 extra stacks of might.

So long as you’re not running around in full ’zerker gear then charging head first into a zerg is fine. You want to make sure you position yourself just behind you front liners then just charge through the enemy zerg from the side. The key is not to stop until you get to the other side and to keep near your guardians/warrior front liners. Since most zergs will dump their AoE in front of them, your best bet is to double roll through, then start flaming their squishy back liners.

The notes do have a certain ANet feel to them and I know we’ve had leaked notes before in GW1 that were reasonably accurate. My guess is that if they are leaked, rather than a work of fiction, then they could be a draft form sent over from ANet HQ to wherever they get localization done and the leak has happened at that end.

Either way it’s filling the time between now and Tuesday.

Pretty much. If you take rocket boots, utility goggles and toolkit, throw in a sigil of ice then you should be able to apply vulnerability, immobilize, cripple, bleeding, chill, burning and if you’re lucky confusion. On average you’ll have at least three to four of those up at any one time.

If these notes are accurate then it’s going to be interesting to say the least. I’m kinda liking moving away from using elixirs and more towards gadgets as well as dusting off the rifle. I’ll have to try using the new sitting duck with rifle mod and modified ammunition all together to see if the damage payoff is worth giving up on the extra range and cooldown reduction. Still given the amount of conditions that end up on your average boss critter/WvW zergathon taking modified ammo might be worth it regardless.

I tend to use my Valkyrie set with emerald orbs (20 precision, 14 power, 14 toughness) plus a mixture of ruby and emerald accessories. I’ll typically have a crit rating of around 60ish and around 30ish% crit chance.

For WvW in general though I’d start off with a set of PVT armour then use runes/orbs and accessories to move it towards the role you want. PVT gives a nice baseline to work off while you’re playing around with builds and allows you to make one or two mistakes in fights.

Berserker/Knights mix would work but I tend to favour Valkyrie over Berserker because I like having the extra health over crit chance. Plus if I’m using maintenance oil then 4% of my vitality is a bonus to precision. You could also use Clerics if you wanted to be a bit more supporty when running with a larger group.

From my own experiences I’d suggest a HGH build, either something like 20/20/0/30/0 or -/30/-/30/- with the remaining points being placed wherever you want. It’s cookie cutter but it does work.

You could go turrets with a 20/10/30/0/10 build or similar. It does let you throw turrets into ‘safer’ spots and gives you a reasonable damage output along with a decent amount of toughness but it lacks in speed boosts unless you want to take the medkit and speedy kits. Also turrets aren’t overally useful in anything larger than a three man fight just because of the AoE thats thrown about.

I’ve got 6 sets of armour for my engineer, depending on what build I want to run.

For DPS I tend to run Valkyrie with Emerald Orbs/PVT with might duration runes and a mix or Ruby and Emerald accessories. The valk set I use mostly for SD builds or when I have an odd notion to run with the FT without HGH. PVT is mostly used for when I’m might stacking with HGH but focusing on damage rather than condition damage, such as using the flamethrower or grenades.

Condition is Rabid with 2 sup lyssa and mad king for the condition duration + two rabid crests, along with a mix of rabid and carrion accessories.

For support I run either Cleric, if there are better condition damage dealers in a group than myself or I’m running turrets, or Apothecary, if I’m running around with the elixir gun and using the conditions from the bomb/grenade kit.

I also have a set of MF gear just for lulzs.

I would like the hammer to become part of a engineer’s arsenal, though I’d take the mace instead… and/or maybe the torch . Combat style I think I’d like the hammer to either work a medium ranged weapon with rocket type attacks, or as a true melee weapon that focuses on the engineer getting into melee, using an attack combo, then disengaging.

In anycase we could do with a purely direct damage weapon other than the rifle (primarily control) and pistol (conditions). That an my asuran engineer would look awesome running into combat with a hammer resting across his shoulders >.>

nakoda.4213:

flamethrowers.

This

TheOneNOnlyGeneralBama.9586:

Prybar and slick shoes. nuff said

This

And high explosives.

Most one rune set offers is 10% duration. You’d either have to use two Lyssa and two Mad King or either one of those two and 4 Lich or Nightmare. Either way you’d only have 20% duration increase.

Compared to a thief’s pistol, the engineer’s pistol wins hands down. While the damage is low and the bleeding duration is low, it can apply a whole slue of conditions in a few seconds. My thief would be more than happy with running P/P if his pistol attacks were as good (unload I’m looking at you). I think I’d be happy if all the explosion based traits in the explosive line also affected pistol 1. Would make a 30/30/-/10/- pistol build somewhat more interesting.

The old classic 30/0/30/0/10 (the 10 could in theory be put anywhere else depending on preference) is a nice healery/conditiony/supporty build using Bomb kit, Healing Turret and Elixir gun for healing. I use full apoth armour with runes of the undead, all the settler’s accessories and a magi back piece. This set up gives me around 2K toughness (5% gets converted into condition damage) and around 1.2K healing. Downside is that I do only have around 15.5K health but upside is the stupid amounts of AoE healing/regen I have access to.

Another build I’ve been tinkering with is 0/20/30/20/0 focused on using the elixir gun and tossing elixirs to remove conditions from the party. With this set up I use Healing Turret or Elixir H (depends if I’m on my own or with a group), Elixir B, Elixir C, Elixir Gun and Supply Crate.

This set up works for WvW, however it shines when you’re running in a group. I still want to see how well a five man engie team with this load out will work in WvW.

Been using the 10,30,0,30,0 build for a while now, since they tweaked kit refinement to make it near enough useless. Rune wise I’m using Superior 2xFire, 2xHoelbrek and 2xStrength. This gives me 30% Boon duration from the Alchemy trait line and another 60% might duration from the runes. I can typically keep my might stacked at 15 out of combat and at around 20-25 in. Currently the armour I use is PVT with a mixture of Knights/Berserker and Valkyrie accessories but then I use the build in WvW.

Look at his happy little face as he stares into your soul…

Might as well throw my own musings here. Overall I think the engineer isn’t in a bad spot at them moment, even with the changes to kit refinement and the tweaking to certain kits. I’ll admit I only tend to use either a HGH 100% condition duration build or a SD build, depending on what I’m doing. That said there still needs to be some tweaking to bring Turrets, kits and the whole gadgets line up to the same level of usefulness as Elixirs are.

Turrets:

Originally (and I still do) I wanted to make my engineer use turrets, that was until I discovered way back when that the turrets were kinda ‘meh’ and were more of a wasted utility slot. These days they are marginally better but I still see no real reason to take anything more than the improved healing turret unless I’m running a crackpot build for kittens and giggles.

Changes that should be done:

*Reduce the size of turret hit boxes. See this thread here for the details https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/engineer/Turret-s-The-hitbox-needs-to-be-fixed

*Improve the 30% damage reduction trait to 50%.

*Rifle Barrelled Turrets trait should give a 15% increase in ALL turret stats. It may sound like it’s approaching an OP level but consider this: Turrets don’t move and with the current 30% damage reduction trait, still only take a few hits to destroy.

*Auto Repair trait to be improved so that it works while in combat and heals quicker. I’ll admit I haven’t used this trait in a while but last time I did it was only healing out of combat and did very little to keep the turret alive.

Changes I’d like to see

*Elixir Infused Bombs trait moved to the explosives trait line and a new mobile turret trait added. The engineer now has to decide if they want stationary but turrets with a higher DPS or basic mobile turrets

*Each Turret to have it’s own unique detonation skill. For example, the flame turret leaves a fire field, or the rocket turret releases a grenade barrage.

*Turrets to provide buffs to other turrets dropped by the same engineer and/or provide buffs to players. Works in a similar fashion to banners with each turret providing one stat improvement. For example the healing turret providing a buff to vitality or the thumper turret improving toughness.

*Bring back the old Deployable Camo trait in some form so an engineer could set up ambush traps with their turret

Kits:

This one is mostly focused around using multiple kits. Before the kit refinement changes, while understandable but killed the trait, I used to run around with a FT/EG build that was a mixture of DPS and support. Since the change, I can’t really see much point bringing more than one kit, with the exception of med kit.

Changes that should be done:

*Remove the current global cooldown on Kit refinement. I can’t see the point in having a global cooldown with the current version of kit refinement. If anything it makes the whole idea of hot swapping kits rather pointless if you’re worrying about saving a kit refinement buff for a certain situation.

*Rethink the current buffs kit refinement gives. At the moment it feels that the current bonuses granted were a knee jerk reaction to the 100nades build. Ideally keep the bomb kit’s magnetic bomb, move the oil slick to the tool kit, give EG back it’s super elixir but tone it down or make it a 3-5 second long water field and give the FT a ring of fire. For the mean time keep the med kit and grenade kit the same.

Changes I’d like to see

*Kit’s to have their own set of stats that override the engineer’s current weapon stats while in use, but not the sigils. So the bomb kit would have Solider stats, the flamethrower would have berserkers, etc.

*Bomb kit to have a 20% blast finisher chance on the standard bomb skill.

*Elixir Gun to have its own grandmaster trait and/or to have the elixir trait bonuses affect it’s elixir skills

Gadgets

I know, I’ll have a full gadget engineer…said no one ever. I like gadgets, but no enough to have more than one of them on my bar at a time, usually utility goggles and that’s only when I’m running a SD build.

Changes that should be done

*Gadgets to act like signets and provide a passive bonus.

Changes I’d like to see

*Possibly a rejig of the whole line. I don’t think I’ve seen an engineer use personal battering ram for a very long time, same with throw mine. Rocket Boots and Slick Shoes I see rarely, with Utility Goggles being brought a long mostly for SD builds or for the stun breaker.

Wish I could say more about the gadgets line but I just don’t use them enough.

They’re the areas I think could do with being looked at first before any others.

Kinda sucks for those of us who in the EU but play on NA servers but meh. Just means my friday nights just got dull.

This build is my general FT/EG build:

0/30/0/20/20

Firearms: Precise Sights or Rifled Barrels (just to give pistols/eg some more range), Fireforged Trigger, Juggernaut
Alchemy: Invigorating Speed, Deadly Mixture.
Tools: Kit Refinement, Speedy Kits.

Utility: Med Kit, Utility Goggles, EG, FT, Supply Kit.

Foods: Maintenance Oil and Omnom/Mixed Berry Pie for lifesteal on crit (With the armour stats I have I tend to have between 50-70% crit chance)

I tend to use dual pistols for sigils (one fire and one bloodlust). Armour is up to you but I run with PVT armour with ruby and emerald orbs slotted and a mixture of valkyrie, beserker’s and knight accessories (I think I’ve got 3 beserker pieces, 1 valk, 1 knights and the karka event accessory that gives +25 to all stats).

Most of the time I just run around flaming groups of mobs until crispy, shifting to the medkit when I need fury and goggles are on cool down. EG gives me AoE regen from the toolbelt skill along with an AoE condition removal and stackable pulse heal. Super Elixir also provides a light field to drop Supply Crate into to throw a bit of retaliation into the mix. Also don’t forget the 10 stacks of vuln you can apply by using the goggle’s toolbelt skill.

As much as the FT isn’t living up to it’s full potential (I still think that it could do with some tweaking both damage wise and mechanics wise) it’s still fun to bring along since the traits you use also benefit the EG.

Currently I’m running around with the FT in WvW using this build:

0/30/0/20/20

Firearms: Rifled Barrels (for that extra pistol range), Fireforged Trigger, Juggernaut
Alchemy: Invigorating Speed, Deadly Mixture
Tools: Speedy Kits, Static Discharge/Kit Refinement.

Utility: Med Kit, Utility Goggles, Elixir Gun/Toolkit, Flamethrower Kit.

Armour is P/V/T with 3 melandru and 3 lyssa runes (orr karma vendor)
Accessories: Beserker ring, back and amulet. Knight ring, Valkyrie earring and the Karka event earring.

Consumable: Omnomberry Pie and Master Maintenance Oil

With this set up I’ve been amusing myself with how tanky it is. Normally I wouldn’t really use the FT in WvW but because of the hit rate the FT has, the life steal from omnomberry pie becomes rather effective. I get around 300ish for each lifesteal and roughly get between 3-7 triggers per target. It won’t make you a true damage sponge but does help in surviving against groups.

Pistol MH with coated bullets or flamethrower tends to be my choice. I also turn off auto targeting so that if my target runs away from the main group I don’t loose chances to tag more mobs.

I’ve also had fairly good success with Motar, used for retaking Grenth’s. Left hand side of the chamber where you fight the fallen priest, you can get on top of the bookcase thingamejig there. Set up Mortar then AoE everything as it spawns. Once it expires, drop down and collect the loot.

Tend to go with 0/30/0/30/10, if I’m running with both FT and EG. Traits are Precise Sights (Rifled Barrels if I know I want to keep at longer range and use the EG), Fireforged Trigger, Juggernaut, Fast Acting Elixirs, Deadly Mixture, HGH and Kit Refinement for those double stacked Super Elixirs.

Armour I use either Power/Vit/Tough or Power/Vit/Crit damage with a random assortment of rare and exotic accessories, though most are Beserker. On my P/V/T armour set I have 2 runes of Hoelbrak (20% might duration increase) and the rest ranger because it offers the same stat boosts as eagle (precision and crit damage) while costing half as much from the TP.

Weapon wise, I favour either P/P or P/S with sigil of fire on the main hand and sigil of corruption on the off-hand for that extra bit of condition damage.

I can typically get around 18-22 stacks of might reliably and my usual damage range is anything between 1.6K – 3.1K with Flame Jet. The EG I usually swap to just to use Acid Bomb and Super Elixir or if I’m up against something that requires me to keep at range rather than mid line.

I mainly use the FT for PvE stuff. In WvW I find it’s a bit more hit and miss given how mobile combat is there, though it is always fun using backdraft to send a few enemies over the cliffs to their doom. Still if you’ve got a good WvW team you roam with, with a couple of front liners, then against a group of people it’s good to keep up the pressure.

With my other characters, I’ve pretty much settled on how I want to play them. The Engineer, however, I’m still paying 3.5 silver every few days to experiment with builds. Love the adaptability I can bring into a situation and that, thanks to the toolbelt, I effectively have 14 skills.

Also dropping a Big Ol Bomb on top of a portal bomb and watching as it explodes just as the zerg is emerging is always fun.

To answer the topic’s question:

Most likely time constraints, other more important profession bug fixs/tweaks and balances, and more importantly the overall impact to the Engineers offensive and defensive capabilities.

My guess is that the addition of stats to the conjured weapons is probably a trial to see how it handles in practice. With our kits you have to factor in a good number of traits that affect their performance (FT for example has 3 that directly affect it) where as the conjured spell line only has one, and that only increases the number of charges.

Taking that into account, it’s going to take longer for adding stats to kits to be reasonably balanced so that we’re not OP or makes using our actual weapons a pointless endeavor. I’d rather they took the time on this than rushing something just to please the vocal few.

As for adding sigils to kits…yeah not going to happen. It would most likely require an overhaul of the current system to make it viable. I doubt Anet have the time nor the inclination to start messing around with core gameplay mechanics this early on.

If we get stats or something else added to kits before the Wintersday event update I’ll be very surprised. Most likely if something like that was on the books I’d go for early next year once Wintersday is done and things quieten down for a month or two before the next event.

I’ve found that the engineer is best off not focusing on just DPS or Support but with being a hybrid of the two. Example would be the FT/EG build I use when I go dungeon diving. 0/30/0/30/10 nets you all the useful traits for both kits along with HGH so you can continue to up Juggernaut (GM Firearm trait) stacks of might. It also gives you Kit Refinement, which allows you to activate a Super Elixir on activation. If you drop a second Super Elixir on top you can give a fairly decent large AoE heal that lasts for 10 seconds. Throw in the effects from Elixir H and B’s toolbelt skills and Healing Mist you can help your party while still dishing out decent DPS.

TrickSmartly.7391:

Are grenades the highest dps?

Yes but it’s situational. They’re usually best against large mobs and slow/static targets unless you’re good at predicting where your target is going to be when the grenades actually hit. They don’t hit for much (for be usually around 300-400) but if all three hit your target + the bleeds/poison (and burn if you’ve taken Incendiary Powder) you’ll do a fair amount of damage. Also the range of 1500 (with grenadier) means you can go full DPS and stay far enough away to avoid most things or at least give you enough time to react.

Personally though I favour either using Rifle using a 10/30/0/30/0 build using HGH to stack might that’ll last a fair amount of time or using the flamethrower kit with a 0/30/0/30/10 build. Slightly less DPS than grenades but more reliable, more so if your target is moving a lot.

TrickSmartly.7391:

Are there any good turret builds for dungeons?

I’ve tried using turrets in dungeons and they’re effectively dead weight. They die far too quickly and have too higher recharge rate, even with taking every turret trait. Hopefully this will be addressed when we get the content update next week.

TrickSmartly.7391:

Is the wrench useful for anything?

PvE its already but it really shines in PvP/WvW. It’s a bag of tricks that gives us some more ways to either escape or snare fleeing targets with Throw Wrench (if you’ve taken Power Wrench). It also gives us another skill that reliably dumps confusions onto your target.

TrickSmartly.7391:

What is the best situation to use a flame thrower?

Anywhere that you need a reliable AoE attack but don’t want to fiddle around with having to manually target grenades or you don’t want to use grenades. Since it pairs so very nicely with the elixir gun, I use it for DPS then the elixir gun for support.

For leveling I mostly stuck with the grenade, bomb or elixir gun kits. FT can be used but without juggernaut it feels a little lackluster. I found that by putting at least 10 points into Alchemy and netting Fast-Acting Elixirs I survived a whole lot more (thanks to shorter recharge elixir H and Bs) than I did using either the healing turret or the medkit.

I think its because engineers currently don’t feel as punchy as other professions that are DPS focused and getting the hammer could be a way to rectify this. My thoughts to how the hammer would work would be something like this:

Skill 1: 3 chained attack applying weakness, vulnerability and ending in a cripple
Skill 2: Leap attack ending with an AoE burn and a 3 second fire field
Skill 3: Small AoE attack. Blast Finisher.
Skill 4: Projectile attack that leaves a trail of smoke/fire
Skill 5: Large AoE attack resulting in burning, bleed and knock back.

Very little utility here to get yourself out of a tricky situation but plenty of damage and conditions to give you a fighting chance to brute force your way through.

In any case the hammer would open up a new branch of play styles which would help the engineer feel less pigeon holed into using certain builds/kits if they want a more DPS focused build.

I favour Deadly Mixture over 409 these days and thats simply because of Super Elixir. Super Elixir also removes conditions so if you’ve got Kit Refinement then you’ll remove one condition on switching into the EG and another one with using Super Elixir. The bonus is that it also a reasonably large AoE so you’ll most likely get a few other people as well.

Even when I’m running with rifles or pistols I tend to take 20% increase in duration because I’m usually using Elixir C as a HGH trigger. Still if you’re sPvPing/WvWing/ in a condition heavy area such as Twilight Arbor then 409 is something to consider taking.

I find I get more success using either P/P , P/S or flamethrower than I do with grenades. I regularly use a 0/30/0/30/10 build with Precise Sights, Fireforged Trigger, Juggernaut, Fast Acting Elixirs, Deadly Mixture, HGH and Kit Refinement. Skills are Elixir H, Elixir B, EG and FT.

Nothing more complex than run around flaming everything, using the FT 2nd and 4th attack for when mobs are spawning/clumped together. EG gives you some healing to keep yourself/any critical NPCs alive along with Acid Bomb to again tag some more mobs.

I just find grenades somewhat too slow to tag things once they start moving around (Grenths comes to mind).

Build I use for EG:

Elixir H, Elixir B, FT, EG, Supply Create

30 into firearms:- Rifled Barrel, Fireforged Trigger, Precise Sights (or if you want to use the FT as well then take sub Rifled Barrel for Juggernaut)
20 into alchemy as a minimum:- Fast Acting Elixirs. Deadly Mixture.

The remaining 20 all depends on what you want to focus more on. I usually either go with topping alchemy to 30 for HGH or 10 into Explosives for Incendiary Powder. In either case I put 10 into Tools for Kit Refinement. You could put the 20 into Inventions but the increase healing doesn’t make that great a difference (Around 20 extra healing from Super Elixir per 100 points of healing I noticed)

Since they synergize well together I also run with the FT using the EG mostly for Super Elixir and Acid Bomb. It also allows me to get more overall damage from the EG due to the might that Juggernaut stacks (typically around 6-7 stacks with 20 in Alchemy).

Gear wise I’ve mainly used Carrion (Con, Pow, Vit), with undead runes, and a mixture of knight and berserker jewellery. It gives a decent all rounder along with toolbelt elixirs for added support.

These days I mostly run with the FT and EG kits using a 0/30/10/20/10 build. Means I get all the major traits that boost both the FT and EG while still maintaining a reasonable amount of survivability.

Skills: Elixir H, Elixir B, Elixir Gun, Flamethrower, Supply Crate.
Traits: Fireforged Trigger, Precise Sights, Juggernaut, Energized Armour, Fast Acting Elixirs, Deadly Mixture, Kit Refinement.

Armour wise I’d use the Power/Toughness/Vit karma set in Orr with a mixture of Knight and Berserker jewellery. If you’re not there yet then a Mixture of Knights and Valkyrie would give you a balance between survivability and offense.

The flamethrower will give you plenty of chance to tag mobs, as will using the EG’s Acid Bomb, while doing a reasonable amount of damage along with the chance of inflicting bleeding, vulnerability and the tick of burning damage at the end of flame jet.

Have to admit I’ve only used this elite on very few occasions, mostly when I was playing with a straight up turret focused build. As it stands it’s outperformed by the grenade kit, more so if someone has traited into it. I’d say there are two options that could improve the skill:

1. Apply high defensive buff to the player while they’re using it, (I’d even suggest applying invulnerability) so that the mortar has to be destroyed before the player can be harmed.

2. Make the mortar into a true heavy turret with it’s AI possibly tweaked so that it’d focus fire on the largest group of valid targets within it’s range.

The first suggestion may appear OP but given how quickly in a PvP situation that the mortar could be dealt with, it’d force people to rethink how to take a bunkered engineer (liberal use of AoE for example). The second one is my personal preference since I’d much prefer the turret to be automated rather than player controlled, so then if I use it I know that it’ll be doing something useful rather than having some bugger nick it when I’ve just deployed it.

I’ve been finding that the flamethrower is proving to be a fairly decent counter to mesmer clones. Not only is the AoE fairly reliable but you’ll remove the threat of a clone spam fairly quickly and catch the mesmer themselves. Currently I’m using a 0/30/20/20/0 build. Pretty much a standard FT/EG build but gives me plenty of survivability against the mesmer and their clones.

As much as I’d like to use Grenades and Bombs, I find they were just dealing with the clones while the mesmer was moving out of range and beaming me to death. At least with the FT I can either beat the mesmer or at least remove the clone threat for long enough to force the mesmer to retreat.

Blammf in full heritage set and crafted krait pistols.

I’ve found that 1v1 I can usually force a thief to abandon their attempt to kill me, if I haven’t already killed them first. Been using this build:

Firearms: 30 : Hair trigger, Rifle Mod/Rifled Barrels, Go For The Eyes/Coated Bullets
Inventions: 20: Energized Armour/Protective Shield, Protective Shield/Reinforced Shield
Alchemy: 20: Fast Acting Elixirs, Cleaning Formula

Italics = pistol set up.

Skills: Elixir H, Elixir B, Slick Shoes, Net Turret, Supply Drop.

Up to you if you use rifle or pistol. If you go for rifle then you have the option of dropping net turret and taking Elixir S to help with dodging. Personally I keep net turret on my bar since combined with the rifle it gives me 4 chances to root them, in between using overcharged shot to KD. Usually combat goes like this:

Use net turret skill on toolbelt to root and begin to chip away at their health, drop net turret and let that root them for a second time. Usually I find they try and stealth so a soon as they reveal themselves I KD them with overcharged shot then as they’re getting up fire the net turrets electric net to daze them for a second or two. By this point they’re either near enough dead or trying to flee so a net shot from the rifle solves this problem.

Pistol and shield works the same except you use the shield’s Magnetic Shield and Static Shield to KD and stun. Advantage of the pistol is you have a easier way of blinding along with the conditions to chip away at their health.

If you do find yourself fleeing then slick shoes and their toolbelt counterpart should give you the means to flee along with dropping a net turret if it isn’t on CD.

While I was leveling up to 80 I was working my way up to this build, and did use it for a while:

Explosives: 30 – Burning Powder, Explosive Powder, Grenadier
Firearms: 10 – Precise Sights
Inventions: 20 – Energized Armour, Power Shoes
Alchemy: 10 – Fast Acting Elixirs,

Skills:
Elixir H
Grenade Kit
Elixir B
Rocket Turret
Supply Drop

Weapon choice is up to you as you’ll mostly be using the grenade kit. Personally I stuck with rifle because jumpshot is useful for jumping puzzles. Grenade Kit gives decent damage (each grenade for me was hitting between 350-400ish iirc) along with a fair few conditions. Great for soloing but I was finding that when dungeon diving I was lacking in general utility so I’ve moved onto this build.

Explosives: 10 – Burning Powder
Firearms: 30 – Precise Sights, Fireforged Trigger, Juggernaut
Alchemy: 30 – Fast Acting Elixirs, Cleansing Formula, Deadly Mixture.

Skills:
Elixir H
Elixir Gun
Flamethrower
Elixir B
Supply Drop.

The flamethrower does a fair bit of damage, along with burning from both the primary attack and the 33% chance on crit, more so now with the tweaks to the Juggernaut trait. The Elixir gun get’s decent condition damage from 30 points in firearms along with offering support skills. Potions keep me free of conditions along with any party members that get hit from the toolbelt skill.

Overall the second build suits my playstyle better, even though throwing explosives is always fun.