Guild Wars 2

GuilguiS.2738:

You say that because Flame Jet isn’t very strong right now. If you could get more burns from it you would like to keep your enemy within range of your flames.

1. Put 10 points in Explosives.
2. Trait for “Incendiary Powder.”
3. ???
4. Profit!

waka.9826:

Phineas Poe.3018:

waka.9826:

For one moment let’s pretend the trait HGH did not exist and might stacking runes did not exist, maybe even grenade kit. Wat do.

I feel like the engineer can’t do any amount of damage without HGH or grenade kit.

When I read posts like this and people think the Grenade Kit is all we have, it makes me sad.

Don’t assume things, I play a flamethrower tool kit build.

But yes I still rely on might stacking. So your point is still bunk.

Assume what? You said that this class cannot do damage without the Grenade Kit or HGH.

I use neither. And I do just fine.

waka.9826:

Dirame.8521:

Well, if you aren’t doing then you aren’t reaching the class’ full potential.

That’s besides the point. What I’m trying to say is I doubt ANET intended for this to be the way engineer has a good build.

I’m not sure how you can say this given that Juggernaut and HGH are precisely designed to have us swimming in Might. Unless you’re suggesting that ArenaNet didn’t think these things through when FT Engineers could sustain 25 stacks of Might, which, I guess is possible.

I see it more that Might is what allows a naturally defensive class dish out good DPS, the same way many DPS Guardian builds are designed. Sometimes you have to think outside the box. I don’t see why we should be punished or slighted for this. It’s part of the fun of playing this game.

waka.9826:

For one moment let’s pretend the trait HGH did not exist and might stacking runes did not exist, maybe even grenade kit. Wat do.

I feel like the engineer can’t do any amount of damage without HGH or grenade kit.

When I read posts like this and people think the Grenade Kit is all we have, it makes me sad.

CptCosmic.3156:

the build sounds nice on paper and I already tried it out and believe me, it is not that good.

you can get way more might stacks with HGH Pistol Elixir Build and a single Sigil of Strength.

I’m not sure I follow.

Juggernaut gives a flat 9 stack of Might with Hoelbrak/Fire/Strength.

With Sigil of Strength, that’s a total of 18.

With HGH + Toss/Elixir B, that’s a total of 25.

Knighthonor.4061:

Healing Turret need a buff. whats the point of it if regen doesnt stack?

Water field?

Cleansing Burst is also pretty nice.

Halcyon.7352:

Infor.9703:

Awesome! Please anet don’t kill the engineer just move KR to 30 points. We will only have SD power rifle build left and pigeon holed into certain utilities with tool belt that work with SD

Source on the possible KR change? 30 points is ridiculous.

If that goes live, I’m more than likely switching to another profession as a main.

I could see Kit Refinement moving to a 20-point slot.

30 would be overkill.

Pannonica.5378:

Light.6095:

If you’re running a support build with Elixir Gun, it shares a lot of traits with Flamethrower. Granted, there aren’t many reasons to run a support build, but if you do, FT and EG have a lot of synergy when used together.

If everything works out, this will be getting more attractive in seven days.

You are killing me.

Destroyer.1306:

Yeah, we definitely need a charge / jetpack storm / teleport to / something better than Rifle 5. If we’re expected to be medium range, we need some kind of gap closer, instead of one million gap creators (PBR, Rifle 4, EG 4, FT 3, Rocket Boots, etc.).

Magnet is your friend.

Somehow I see Thumper Turret + Tool Kit being a really obnoxious build in the near future with perma AoE cripple.

Goloith.6349:

Obviously you don’t play in Tier 1 because Retreat, Save Yourselves, and Stand Your Ground are a staple for the Guardian Frontliner build. What would I know, after all JQ is the #1 server and EMP is undefeated in Guild vs. Guild events. Personally flipping to a kit to get swiftness is nice, but again your forced into that skill tree just for the speed. If your condition build that +10 in Gadgets hurts you.

Haha, what? Wow. What a TryHard post. Nobody cares if you’re on Jade Quarry, especially since the only reason you’re in first place is because of the disgusting amount of Oceanic/EU players compared to all the other NA servers. But what would I know? I only played on the server for 3+ months, even before it reached Tier 1. I moved to Sanctum of Rall precisely because I was tired of always playing against the same realms.

My point was that a Guardian has to fill up their bar with specific utility skills to match the mobility of an Engineer. That you’re trying to dispute/downplay this is kind of hysterical.

And lolwut? I use a Condition build in WvW. 0/30/0/30/10. P/P Elixir spec with the Tool Kit. Speedy Kits is not a problem. It’s 10 points in Tools, which is something every build pretty much has in PvE because of Kit Refinement. Sometimes I’ll even go the extra 10 for Power Wrench.

The Flamethrower used to have a lot of miss issues, especially on stationary targets like CoF turrets and AC burrows, but that shouldn’t be a problem anymore.

The only time the Flamethrower misses for me is if I’m facing the wrong direction.

google.3709:

altho i agree the blind while stun could be nice, just 1 blind won’t be enough to make a difference since its melee only and is really only useful when fighting a backstab theif ( if you can predict )

Well I was talking about PvE needing a blind more than a pull, not sPvP.

Ojimaru.8970:

Thinking of reviving my Engineer after being stuck in stasis and mule duty for the past months. Throughout my reading of the forums, I’ve gathered that the Engineer’s strengths is her ability to combine skills from various kits and weapons to create some fun combos.

What are your favourite combos that you use? What does it achieve? What do you need to make it work?

When soloing (Rifle/Flamethrower):

Jump Shot → Blunderbuss → Overcharged Shot → Flame Blast

When in groups (Med Kit/Flamethrower/Elixir Gun):

1. Elixir Gun: Kit Refinement → Acid Bomb
2. Med Kit: Drop Stimulant + Altruism (~20 seconds of self Fury, 6 seconds group Fury)
3. Flamethrower: Flame Blast → Flame Jet (x2) → Flame Blast
4. Elixir Gun: Super Elixir → Acid Bomb
5. Flamethrower: Flame Blast → Flame Jet (x2) → Flame Blast

Rinse and repeat.

Gives 5/10 seconds of Fury/Might every 20 to my group, sustains Light field for healing/condition removal/Retaliation with Kit Refinement + Super Elixir, and dishes out good DPS with Flame Blast + Flame Jet.

I question the use of an AoE pull given that it is precisely the opposite of what you want to do in sPvP. Magnet already does this for WvW, and in PvE there’s more need for a blind than a mid-range pull. Smoke Vent has saved me from getting downed a lot of times because it can be activated while stunned.

Just be mindful that if it hurts us, it hurts everybody else.

I have a feeling not much is really going to change across the board how the Engineer compares to other classes given whatever their plan is affects all classes equally.

Pannonica.5378:

A little bird told me next patch will change game for many builds (this might be a bad thing though).
Theres good things to come and bad things, but the majority of things got me excited if they get implemented as rumoured.
I’d estimate about 30-40 bullet points (and thats not only tooltip or bug fixes!).

We need to stay flexible though and it won’t solve all of our problems, but some labour is being done behind the curtains.
Of course not everybody will be happy and never will.

Spill.

Goloith.6349:

Also unless you have speedy kits as an Engineer your mobility is not as great as a Guardian rolling GS/Staff. Also an Aegis Guardian when seeing his party member getting face rolled can spam Aegis twice to mitigate a lot of damage before he dies.

So really what you’re saying here is that Guardian is more mobile than an Engineer is so long as the Engineer doesn’t spec for it.

Invigorating Speed/Infused Precision gives us perma Swiftness and Vigor in combat. It’s true that Guardians get Vigorous Precision, but Symbol of Swiftness only grants 8 seconds of Swiftness every 15 (or 12 with Two-Handed Mastery).

Watch a Staff Guardian and an Engineer race each other in WvW. The Guardian has to fill up their utility bar with skills like Retreat and Save Yourselves to keep pace—an Engineer just has to swap in and out of their Med Kit.

Hell, just watch a Guardian try to keep pace with Prisoner 1141 in preparation of starting a Guild Hunt. It’s kind of hysterical.

And more to what my actual point was, Elixir R has the flexibility of being used with any build. Yeah, a Guardian can revive allies just as good as anybody can. Warriors can revive downed allies with Battle Standard. It’s also their elite skill. Elixir R is a utility slot—and on top of that is a toolbelt skill on a separate cooldown of the elixir itself which breaks stun and refills our Endurance.

Do you know how much Guardians would kill to have a skill like that? I certainly would love to have it on mine.

I get it, guys. You’re not happy with where the Engineer is at. But arguing that a Guardian is more mobile than us is just plain wrong. The Guardian buffs people around them. The Engineer as a mid-fielder can support both the front and back—and move between the two very easily.

I definitely agree that the Guardian may better suit peoples’ playstyles, but I don’t think it totally outclasses the Engineer in support.

The Guardian supports people around him/her. Mostly Warriors. I pull all the mobs together with Binding Blade and then Warriors go to town with Hundred Blades. Or I’ll use my Hammer and provide Regeneration/Protection to those in my vicinity. Overall, it’s a front-line, tanky support character.

The Engineer, comparatively, is a lot more mobile. Super Elixir can be aimed. Thrown elixirs can be aimed. Our Combo fields can be aimed. It’s not about just buffing people in your vicinity. I can Toss Elixir R to a Warrior getting facerolled and bring him back up from 1200 range.

The Engineer is just a lot more flexible than given credit—probably because a lot of players want out of the Engineer what it wasn’t designed to do, and more in line with what the Guardian does.

I think a lot of that has to do with miscommunication on the part of ArenaNet clearly not entirely knowing where to take this class and bringing it to balance with other classes, especially in PvE.

Chaba.5410:

Phineas Poe.3018:

I don’t know how you can be told they have 2 pages of notes in front of them and then sit there in silence while one of the other devs nudges the guy to start reading some of them off.

Easy. Ask the devs about a class you don’t play or care about and voila! Instant blank face!

Well that was kind of my point. Get people who care involved in the process. The players they chose to do this thing really only cared about minor peripheral issues with the Engineer (turrets, elixir RNG) yet completely grilled the developers on other class issues.

I think what was even worse was when they started talking about the Guardian, where none of the three players really seemed to care at all and were ready to move on the second the class was mentioned.

On the PvE side of things, most certainly. It offers a Fire field, a knockback/interrupt, and one of our best Power-scaling attacks in Flame Blast. The only other Fire field we have, actually, is with the Bomb Kit … which similarly has its issues in PvE.

Flame Jet is still a bit on the weak side and needs some buffs to be a more competitive DPS option, but overall the Flamethrower works as a great PvE setup designed for a more support/tanky playstyle than the Grenade Kit.

I still use the Grenade Kit in CoF p1 and other “speed run” areas of PvE, but for everything else I use my FT. It’s just how I prefer to play—the same reason I rolled a Guardian as my alt and not a Warrior.

Kalan.9705:

Regarding balance change decisions I have no idea where the devs are soucing their engineer info, it’s pretty clear from the reluctant & desultory response during the interview that it’s certainly not from playing an engineer for themselves. What ever their source for engineer info actually is, it’s a horribly flawed, short-sighted and inaccurate source that is leading to terrible decisions.

I think the “desultory” attitude ArenaNet had was more toward the interview process than the Engineer itself.

The interviewers didn’t press very hard on specifics. I don’t know how you can be told they have 2 pages of notes in front of them and then sit there in silence while one of the other devs nudges the guy to start reading some of them off. Yeah, one of the guys asked about limiting RNGs with elixirs and questioned the need for turrets, but there was a lot left on the table before they decided to move on. They really just need to have one person for each class involved in these things, at last on one side of the table or the other.

I was left wanting more. 10 days is a lot of time for speculation.

Could you be more specific about where you tested this?

I just went into the Mists (sPvP). With HGH + Hoelbrak/Fire/Strength runes, Elixir B gives me a 56-second stack of Might. With Potent Elixirs it’s over a minute.

Seems to be working as intended.

Is this for PvE or PvP?

If you’re using this in dungeons with Condition Damage you gotta go all the way to make sure no one overlaps your Bleed/Burn/Poison. My dungeon Condition Damage gear is 4/2 Rabid/Carrion with Celestial Amulet and Chrysocola accessories.

I would ask other players in your group before just assuming you’re the only Condition Damage built guy. Thankfully both Power and Condition Damage FT Engis benefit from exactly the same traits so it requires no great lengths to alter aside from equipping different Pistols (for Sigils) and maybe not using Hair Trigger.

If there’s an Elementalist or someone in the group that’s also focused around Burn damage and they’re set on their ways I’ll just wear my Zerker/Ruby gear (which is usually what I wear anyway).

SilverWF.4789:

just wondering – who have asked for turrets buff? don’t they see we need something another?

So you’d rather they stay useless in dungeons? I would love to center my playstyle around them.

Ayestes.1273:

Perhaps I’m misreading some of this and that’s my own fault, but I don’t think we are as bad off as many people seem to portray.

I don’t think we are, either.

The Grenade Kit does great damage even without Kit Refinement. Being a PBAoE skill actually kind of flies in the face of how the rest of the kit works—as a ranged option. I understand some people are very attached to their “100nades” setup but nerfing it hardly kills the Engineer’s viability in PvE or PvP with the Grenade Kit. A lot of Grenade Kit users don’t even have any points in Tools in the first place. 30/10/0/30/0 is just as common a spec, and arguably is better for spreading conditions.

The Bomb Kit, too, is just fine. It probably has the best #1 skill of all the kits in damage output and Elixir-Infused Bombs is a viable support-role alternative.

The Flamethrower probably could use a buff to be competitive with the Grenade Kit in damage, but it is a tankier option and I love playing with it. It synergizes well with the Elixir Gun and provides a great balance of damage and support. I feel like the FT/EG build is actually closest to what the developers intended the Engineer to be—as a mid-range, tanky class that provides ample damage and support. Give Flame Blast a finisher and give Napalm a circular radius we can call it a wrap.

And the Tool Kit shines so bright in sPvP/WvW it’s almost idiotic not to use it.

Where people come off saying the Engineer is busted is beyond me, but I feel the internet more commonly pulls out the negativity of people rather than their positivity. I just hope that somehow ANet is able to look past all the negativity.

Edit: Miswrote numbers!

I was actually thinking, Static Discharge may work extremely well with turrets.

Running something like a 0/20/30/0/20 setup may work:

Firearms: Hair Trigger + Rifle Mod
Inventions: Metal Plating + Autotool Installations + Rifled Turret Barrels
Tools: Static Discharge + Power Wrench

An alternative would be doing something like Knee Shot + Precise Sights for Vulnerability stacking with the Net Turret. If this patch delivers on its promises (I’m not holding my breath) this could be a lot of fun.

Yeah, I especially like how people go on about how Deployable Turrets means you can now toss them in unreachable areas.

Well if they’re unreachable, that means you’re stuck with the extended cooldown when you’re ready to move on.

Just one of many suspect design choices of the Engineer. Though I still love the class and would love to try out turrets in the next patch.

Rhoellan.5462:

If they are getting buffed, which I would think the new patch with the 100% healing improvement should have helped, what is a good turrent build?

I see little to no posts about them, their strengths and weakness and what builds they have good synergy with. I always liked the idea of turrents, but it never made sense before to try them. Thoughts?

Probably because no one has actually gone out and tried to make a dungeon-viable build given how weak they currently are.

I would imagine the setup would be something like Healing Turret + Rifle Turret + Rocket Turret + Tool Kit for damage.

No idea how traits would be split, but I’d imagine Tools and Inventions would be the obvious focus.

Goloith.6349:

In my opinion the Devs see the engineer in the vision of PvP and not WvW. I really would like to start seeing them making things more WvW centric.

Really? I think the Engineer is perfectly fine in WvW. I love using the Tool Kit and pulling people into the horde.

Where I’m concerned is the Engineer fading out of existence in PvE.

Ha! No, I understand you perfectly.

I wouldn’t mind additional boon support out of the Elixir Gun, especially if Kit Refinement is going to be moved up the Tools tree.

A lot depends on what they’ll do with Kit Refinement and how that affects our versatility. I’ll slot traits for the Elixir Gun if it’s worth it, but I still don’t think it needs them at the moment.

Aristio.2784:

Guardians can provide a substantial damage reduction, which is in most cases, better than green numbers.

One would argue that they provide substantial damage reduction because their low health pool requires it, not to mention they’re a melee class along with Warriors. They’re frontline support. Engineers aren’t.

Aristio.2784:

And Elementalist can provide a huge burst of healing by just dodge rolling, which is more than what our Super Elixir does most of the times.

And one would argue that they provide a huge burst in healing precisely because they would be total crap if they didn’t for survivability. They have the lowest tier health pool and have paper plates for armor.

What I’m saying is that the Engineer’s Super Elixir doesn’t work as a miracle machine precisely because we do not need it to.

There’s plenty to complain about the Engineer’s DPS options outside of the Grenade/Bomb Kit, but I never thought I’d seriously see people complaining about the Engineer’s support/defense skills.

Ayestes.1273:

Quite frankly I don’t think an ally would really notice much if you had an Elixir Gun, compared to say having a Guardian or Ele focused on Support next to you.

You added this while I was writing my post, and I’d like to additionally respond to this.

To do what the Elixir Gun does for support, the Guardian has to spec heavily into Valor and Honor, thereby shelving their DPS threshold pretty low compared to other specs. Now Altruistic Healing/Empowering Might with the right gear is a powerful setup, of course. I run it on mine and enjoy it a lot. But I miss out on A LOT of damage going that way with my Guardian that doesn’t have to be done with the Engineer.

Perhaps that’s precisely where ArenaNet’s concern lies—in that I can sustain a Light field 100% of the time spending only 10 trait points—but the Elixir Gun as it stands is great and actually doesn’t require nearly any traits at all aside from Kit Refinement to be effective.

This is what allows the Engineer to be versatile, providing support with the Elixir Gun while dishing out top-notch DPS with the Grenade Kit at no cost to their build. Guardians can’t do this. Elementalists could do this with their D/D setup, which was rightfully nerfed in the last patch.

We had this coming—or at least Grenade Kit Engineers did.

I am not going to speculate what they’re doing with Kit Refinement and the Elixir Gun. I’m talking about how the Engineer is right now, and you don’t think the Elixir Gun provides enough support.

Super Elixir is a 100% sustainable health regenerative Light field that stacks on top of Regeneration. When you consider that in conjunction with the Med Kit which can replenish 8,000+ health, give perma Fury with Altruism, and remove an additional condition every 15 seconds (meaning 3 every 20 with Kit Refinement + Super Elixir) the Engineer has more than enough to stay alive.

You say it needs to heal more, but the Elixir Gun is not a healing skill. Look across all the professions and show me one utility skill that actually provides meaningful healing that can be 100% sustained.

Ayestes.1273:

I think some trait combination with the Elixir Gun should be capable of stronger support.

Like what? The kit already offers a group condition cleanse in Fumigate and a perma Light field with Kit Refinement (never mind that Super Elixir removes a condition on impact too).

Between that and Med Kit’s on-heal rune procs for Altruism/Dwayna/Whatever … what more do you really need?

I actually think the Elixir Gun is perfectly fine. The problem lies more with the Flamethrower and our turrets—more so the latter than the former.

If farming Orr events for t6 materials, Coated Bullets or the Flamethrower are way less tedious ways to farm than using the Grenade Kit.

For Coated Bullets, run a 10/30/0/30/0 Condition Damage spec. For the Flamethrower, run 10/30/0/20/10 with Juggernaut, Deadly Mixture, and Incendiary Powder. Speedy Kits for movement speed.

Yeah I think an AoE condition removal fits more in line with how the Med Kit works.

If you need more condition removal, use the Elixir Gun with Kit Refinement.

Goloith.6349:

Tbh I think the P/P 100% Duration HGH (Rabid) build will probably be the most powerful single target build available once they fix Giver’s Weapons. Once their fixed it will be possible to have 100% condition duration on all conditions and have the benefit of stacking 15-18 stacks of might. On a side note, one could run Rampager’s with the condition duration runes and really benefit from the power/cd/prec for a grenade build (currently I’m pretty sure Rampager’s is a better choice for grenades or Berserker for power builds).

Pistol skills scale so horribly with Power it’s almost pointless to wear Rampager insignia gear. Going glass cannon may work in some dungeons, but Rabid works just as well and is more useful in WvW.

Rampager is more useful for Grenade Kit than it is a P/P Elixir build.

About Guardian being the best tanking class: totally. Even with the low HP pool no other class can effectively mitigate damage the way a Guardian can. At many times playing mine I feel like if they had the Warrior’s health they’d just never die.

But I hesitate when you say that the Engineer lacks specialization.

The Engineer is the best class when it comes to “on heal” runes, especially Altruism. We can give our group 5+ seconds of Fury every 15 seconds without actually burning any heal skill. This makes playing a supportive role in groups so exceptionally easy for us. No other class has group condition removals as good as the Engineer does, either. Just slotting the Elixir Gun on your bar makes us a huge momentum shift with Fumigate’s condition removal and 100% sustained Light fields with Kit Refinement + Super Elixir. Drop it on top of a Greatsword Guardian and they’ll whirl away everyone’s nearby conditions continuously.

The only other class that can sustain Light fields, of course, is the Guardian, which requires giving up some pretty significant traits. Kit Refinement costs us nothing to our DPS—actually adding to it when using the Grenade Kit—and gives us an additional 10% Critical Damage for speccing into Tools.

The way I see it, the FT/EG Engineer may not ever top the charts in damage but I certainly allow people to improve and focus on theirs.

The Engineer is also awfully good at spreading conditions. With the right build, Engineers can consistently apply Poison, Bleed, Burn, and Confusion. This is best used in sPvP/WvW and not PvE, but it is a specialization and we do have it.

With Soldier armor + Emerald jewelry, an FT/EG Engineer is a durable beast.

That said, you’re probably better off speccing for damage because even with Zerker/Ruby gear you’re pretty tough. 10/30/0/20/10 is my favorite DPS setup at the moment with the Flamethrower. Click the link in my signature for a full breakdown.

Viable in dungeons? Yes. I boost everyone’s survivability and damage while dishing out plenty on my own.

Penguin.5197:

Be able to equip kits in the secondary weapon slot. I don’t mean taking them away from utility slots, just be able to equip one on the weapon slot, freeing up utilities of you plan on only using one extra kit anyways. Then if you want more just put them on utility slots.

One extra utility is not going to make engineers op, and seems reasonable enough to me.

What if they revamping the toolbelt entirely and slotted each kit as F1-4, combining all of the toolbelt skills into a single utility skill that changes based on the kit equipped?

Just an idea.

daydream.2938:

Paulytnz.7619:

Fix for the flamethrower missing – Stop moving before attacking stationary targets. There done. It only misses if you are MOVING and trying to target a stationary target. Dunno why this happens but it does.

Try not moving in pvp=dead.

This was fixed in the last patch. Attacking CoF turrets and AC burrows is not a problem with the Flamethrower anymore.

Rozbuska.5263:

I play static discharge build in PvE and its hit harder then 100b warrior:-)

Not to pull the “screenshot or it didn’t happen” card, but I’m totally pulling the screenshot or it didn’t happen card.

OP, for PvE:

Go Grenade/Bomb Kit + elixir of choice for raw damage.
Go P/P HGH for support/condition spec.
Go Flamethrower/Elixir Gun for a happy medium of the two.

For WvW/sPvP:

Go Tool Kit + Elixir S + Elixir C with pistol. Spam Static Shot and Prybar and watch people kill themselves.

drrobotnic.9387:

I wouldn’t mind a few suggestions though, I was using the full firearm and alchemy that you guys sugegsted and it’s very nice but i can’t help but think turrets do a lot of damage.

Turrets are fine in open world, but they fall to pieces in seconds when you’re playing in dungeons, even with traits.

The fix to Deployable Turrets is a welcome relief, but they need to be buffed—by like 100%—like they did with the Guardian’s Spirit Weapons. Tool Kit + Turrets should be a totally viable PvE setup but right now it just isn’t.

Kalan.9705:

Compare FT with warriors longbow, a fairly comparable mixed power/cd weapon. Look at the massively better longbow range (and traited to 1200), look at the vastly superior amount of finishers longbow gets, and the circle aoe field, and the fact it isn’t so vulnerable to retaliation/confusion.

Yeah, I’d love it if they remodeled Napalm to work like Combustive Shot. Kind of ridiculous that a Bow gets a larger Fire combo field than a Flamethrower.

Naioby.3705:

Without any lag you get 10 to almost 13 secs which means is PERMA 12 stacks, and you were saying 12 stacks for A FEW SECS? u blind? no math? how good were your math grades at school, college?

Um, good enough to have a graduate degree. But that’s good on you to take another swing at me. Real necessary.

My experiences come from using Hoelbrak/Fire/Strength runes which grant +60% Might duration. I also run with 20 points in Alchemy, which grants +20% Boon Duration. That means that Might is boosted by 80% in its duration.

Unbuffed, Sigil of Battle gives 3 stacks of Might that last 20 seconds. With +80% duration, that is 36 seconds. On a 10 second cooldown.

That means that with this setup it is physically impossible to sustain 12 stacks of Might with Sigil of Battle. You’ll get it for a few seconds and it will go back to 9.

Mortar would be a great WvW defense skill if not for the fact that it only has 1400 range and doesn’t do a whole lot of damage. As the joke often is, drop it on the wall and give it to the nearest Guardian. That’s all it’s good for. So I really wish it would get buffed.

I’m fine with Supply Drop in PvE. It’s an additional Blast finisher and sprays Med Packs like free candy.

Naioby.3705:

Stop discussing with me really, you didn’t proove me wrong and we had like 5 ppl here saying you were wrong. So really you are off man, the more u discuss the heavier my math will prove you wrong, and I even upped images. I really dont want to loose anymore of my precious time, so I will start taking your next posts as a troller cuz thats what a guy told me today when I mentioned this case, he said you were “trolling me” and that I was “wasting my time” so, take this post as a present and stop trolling me. I even saw you trolling Nakoda up there saying things that he already explained clearly, and you made him mad. It seems that makes you happy but it’s not gonna happen with me, I’m telling you, next msgs I will take it as “you are trolling me”.

Huh? I’m not trying to prove anyone wrong about anything.

And what do you mean, go out and “try it?”

I invested 8 gold to try out your method and document my experiences with it. If that offends you I apologize, but I distinctly said that there are definite advantages to Sigil of Battle and that at maximum potency gives more stacks of Might. I don’t know how anything I said could be construed as trying to prove anybody wrong—I think you’re looking for something that isn’t actually there.

I haven’t even swapped back to Sigil of Strength yet because I wanted to run a few dungeons with it to see how it compares. I respect your post explaining how Battle works shooting Mist Golems but I don’t think that’s indicative of how it performs on specific boss situations in PvE.

And I think Nakoda can speak for himself.

I went with Syzygy (Celestial/Celestial).

Gold Find infusion.

Also just to return to (I know….) the Sigil of Strength versus Sigil of Battle conversation:

I went ahead and tried it out for a while as I had some gold left over from some CoF runs I did last night. I definitely think it’s a very powerful option, especially with Hoelbrak/Fire/Strength runes with a 2/2/2 split. I very much like this setup over Altruism for my Zerker gear and will probably stick with it (though I will continue using Altruism with my Soldier gear as a balanced setup).

But I probably won’t stick with Battle. Here’s why:

Hoelbrak + Fire + Strength gives +60% Might Duration, right?
And 20 points in Alchemy gives +20% Boon Duration, right?

That means I’m getting an 80% boost to my Might Boons, which accelerates Juggernaut from its pedestrian 5-stack of Might at base to a 9-stack with H/F/S. Great stuff!

It’s true I miss out on having that extra stack swapping to my Med Kit, but simply getting 9 out of Juggernaut instead of 7 + 3 is much easier for overall synergy and allows me more time to actually focus on doing damage/support.

Now here’s where it gets interesting.

Sigil of Battle gives 3 stacks of Might for 20 seconds. That means that with +80% Might Duration that means each 3-stack application of Might lasts 36 seconds. If there’s an internal cooldown of 10 seconds with Battle as indicated, that means that I can perpetually sustain 9 additional Might with a few seconds of 12.

In theory this seems vastly superior, but you have to be extremely precise in your kit swapping to make the most of those extra seconds for 12 stacks of Might. Even if you wait 11 seconds per kit swap, that means you’re really only getting 3 seconds of extra Might, half of which is spent not even using the kit because you swapped out if it!

Sigil of Strength applies one stack of Might that lasts 10 seconds. With an internal cooldown, that means that with no Boon Duration stuff it gives potentially 5 stacks of Might. But with 80% Might Duration, those stacks last 18 seconds. And 18 second duration … with a 2-second internal cooldown … means you’ll get an overlap of 9 stacks of Might.

So which do you go with?

I think that’s still ultimately up to the player. I just wanted to concede that I tried the Sigil of Battle and I must admit it’s a dandy one. But it requires a lot of precision of when you swap to your pistol/rifle/Elixir Gun that quite frankly is circumvented and unnecessary when using Sigil of Strength.

Additionally, it takes three kit swaps to get to the true efficiency of the Sigil of Battle. That’s 30 seconds. In combat. To get to the maximum potency of the Sigil of Strength, on the other hand, requires only 18 seconds.

The importance of this when clearing trash mobs is quite frankly well understated.

Why do you think the Flamethrower’s weapon damage has been reduced or the coefficient has changed for the worse?