25 replies to this topic

[Chemist]

Hey all,

I'm here to ask about how other level 80 Engineers are farming high end content. I am currently Running http://www.guildhead...oaMx0x0acRkzVqo as a solo farming build, and it works out pretty well. I swap up traits according to what mobs I am fighting, including swapping grenade kit out when I know I'll be in close quarters for a while (Grenth waypoint farming). I snagged up a suit of high power/tough/vita with, shocker, *Magic Find* runes. I run 90% MF with food + equipment, have 3200 attack, 2400 armor and about 17k life (yes HP is low). However, crunching rares at the forge, I can pull enough rares a day to craft at least 1-2 legendary items. (I find that many, I don't crunch that many)

Running around farming the Grenth area, I can fight 4-5 monsters at a time with ease and constantly chain them due to the areas high respawn rate. I haven't really found a better spot yet seeing I've only been 80 a handful of days now, but this seems to be working pretty well. I'm curious what other bomb engineers are running and how it is working out for them? I'd love any sort of input to make life easier.

Thanks!
-C

[RyuujinZERO]

I'm only level 50 but a big bomber fan. I'm just curious why you have grenades and bombs together, as I'd thought bringing elixir U would be more useful; then you can toss the elixir to create a screen if ranged mobs are being a nuisance, or if you drink then you can spam the living hell out of bombs while hiding inside a smoke screen for insane damage.

[Xbuster231]

prob cause grenade barrage can almost one shot a group of slightly damage mobs, and has half the cooldown, plus its nice to have some heavy ranged dps for pulling

[Phineas Poe]

Do you really think Elixir-Infused Bombs is worth it? It only healed like 50-80 points per bomb for me around level 70 when I tried it out.

When I have over 10,000 health ... it really doesn't amount to much.

[Chemist]

Phineas_Poe, on 06 September 2012 - 03:46 AM, said:

Do you really think Elixir-Infused Bombs is worth it? It only healed like 50-80 points per bomb for me around level 70 when I tried it out.

When I have over 10,000 health ... it really doesn't amount to much.

That sounds about right as far as the healing amount goes, for me it heals for about 180 per bomb. Between bomb spam + evade bomb creation, I sustain myself fairly well. Yes, I do have to swap to medkit very often, but as long as you maintain the clump the packs are fairly easy to deal with.

As far as grenade + bomb kits, I really like the toolbelt for grenade kit. I find it often hitting near 3.8k damage once I get a few stacks of invuln up on the group. That may not seem like much, but when you are spamming 2k bombs in between for an all out AoE offensive, it works out pretty darn well. Plus, like Xbuster said, the ranged damage it can deal is incredibly handy when I do run into mobs I have problems leashing.

[Scrimps]

* No point reducing the cooldowns on bombs and grenades, they barely have one as it is

* If you can learn how to kite well, you don't need to put points into inventions. You can go 30 bombs, 30 firearms, then get swiftness.

* The 300 precision from Firearms is massive.

* instead of reduced recharge on bombs etc.., pick up either throw an extra grenade, if you plan on using that kit, or apply a burn.

* My build is 30 firearm, 30 explosives, 10 tools. Rifle, + Bomb kit +  Elixer B, Elixer U + Golem for elites, or supply for aoe.

For some reason people are not adding precision to their builds when doing bomb builds. It makes no sense. I also suspect that a pure Precision + Crit damage + Power build (in that order), for rifles, is going to hit HARD in WvW.

[Snarvid]

I'm not familiar with that builder and didn't see items.  If you use http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/ it has item choices. Makes it hard to assess how much anyone likes the healing off elixir bombs for if they aren't gearing for heals.

I was thinking of running an elixir bomber build with full cleric/fighter loadout to leverage the bonus power off healing and toughness.  Clearly won't do the damage of a dedicated glass cannon but should have a lot more durability between high toughness and steady heals.  Too many alts to have gotten there yet.

Bombs in dungeons... suicide?  Seems like a good steady support option and also insanely close to the action.

Edit: And while I'm at it, what is "using a healing skill"?  Any skill that heals or just hitting 6 (in which case, just equipping a med kit?).

Edited by Snarvid, 06 September 2012 - 12:53 PM.

[Kentaro]

Scrimps, on 06 September 2012 - 12:21 PM, said:

* No point reducing the cooldowns on bombs and grenades, they barely have one as it is

* If you can learn how to kite well, you don't need to put points into inventions. You can go 30 bombs, 30 firearms, then get swiftness.

* The 300 precision from Firearms is massive.

* instead of reduced recharge on bombs etc.., pick up either throw an extra grenade, if you plan on using that kit, or apply a burn.

* My build is 30 firearm, 30 explosives, 10 tools. Rifle, + Bomb kit +  Elixer B, Elixer U + Golem for elites, or supply for aoe.

For some reason people are not adding precision to their builds when doing bomb builds. It makes no sense. I also suspect that a pure Precision + Crit damage + Power build (in that order), for rifles, is going to hit HARD in WvW.

You can easily test that out in Heart of Mists. I already played around with a Power, precision, Crit Damage build and my grenades were reaching around 1800~ per grenade critical.

[theorangeshield]

Scrimps, on 06 September 2012 - 12:21 PM, said:

* No point reducing the cooldowns on bombs and grenades, they barely have one as it is

* If you can learn how to kite well, you don't need to put points into inventions. You can go 30 bombs, 30 firearms, then get swiftness.

* The 300 precision from Firearms is massive.

* instead of reduced recharge on bombs etc.., pick up either throw an extra grenade, if you plan on using that kit, or apply a burn.

* My build is 30 firearm, 30 explosives, 10 tools. Rifle, + Bomb kit +  Elixer B, Elixer U + Golem for elites, or supply for aoe.

For some reason people are not adding precision to their builds when doing bomb builds. It makes no sense. I also suspect that a pure Precision + Crit damage + Power build (in that order), for rifles, is going to hit HARD in WvW.

Gonna take a note out of your book and move my power/precision/cond+ gear to power/precision/crit. I run pistol/shield with grenade kit/elixir U and R. I go 30 explosives/30 firearms/10 tools for swiftness. I dont' see a big gain from the condition damage boosts and I'm mostly spamming 1 and the toolbelt skill anyways. I'll also take advice about losing the CD reducing trait. Grenade skills are low enough as it is.

[Benkun]

What's the viability on the Call Warband skill?
Although i tend to use supply crate I feel i need an alternative to aoe.

[Phineas Poe]

Chemist, on 06 September 2012 - 04:52 AM, said:

As far as grenade + bomb kits, I really like the toolbelt for grenade kit. I find it often hitting near 3.8k damage once I get a few stacks of invuln up on the group. That may not seem like much, but when you are spamming 2k bombs in between for an all out AoE offensive, it works out pretty darn well. Plus, like Xbuster said, the ranged damage it can deal is incredibly handy when I do run into mobs I have problems leashing.

Eh, I prefer the toolbelt skill for Bomb Kit. For one thing, it's a massive AoE knockback ... and its damage output is about the same as the Grenade Kit toolbelt skill. I also dislike the idea of using both kits at once, as I've recently switched to Tools over Inventions and have really grown to love having two knockback skills on my bar (Throw Mine and Personal Battering Ram).

PBR is especially a great gadget to have, as its toolbelt skill applies a cripple condition, which pairs well with Speedy Kits if for whatever reason you need to back off and start a fight over. With Throw Mine (which also has a pretty good toolbelt skill) along with my rifle skills, I've got 4 knockback skills to use. Maybe it's overkill for most situations, but there have been many times where it came down to slapping a mob with my Throw Mine skill that made the difference between being downed (and losing my Bloodlust stack) or not.

Grenade Kit is something I use solely in groups. I actually find the constant aiming and tapping of 1/2 to be incredibly tedious.

Edited by Phineas_Poe, 06 September 2012 - 02:43 PM.

[Mr Shrimp]

Snarvid, on 06 September 2012 - 12:42 PM, said:

Edit: And while I'm at it, what is "using a healing skill"?  Any skill that heals or just hitting 6 (in which case, just equipping a med kit?).

I tested this in mists. Had 6 set dwayna for the aoe regen on a heal skill. Went up to a random person and swapped to my med kit and that gave them the regen boon.

[theorangeshield]

Benkun, on 06 September 2012 - 02:16 PM, said:

What's the viability on the Call Warband skill?
Although i tend to use supply crate I feel i need an alternative to aoe.

Are you speaking strictly of elite skills? Sadly we are lacking. I can't attest personally to charr racials, but I've found most racial abilities/elites are mostly there for the cosmetic flair or novelty. Supply drop is simply our best elite skill. You get a temporary taunt off yourself due to the turrets, and free healing packs. The turret damage itself is neglible, but the free net turret can come in handy depending on the situation. Also keep in mind that it IS a blast finisher, so try to always line it up with one of your fields, be it fire/poison/light/smoke depending on what kit you're rolling with.

Our elixir elite is too lackluster at the moment. The tornado shines in certain "o-shiat" moments with large packs of mobs sometimes, but only to serve as a stall between healing CD's since the damage is so inconsistent. The brute transformation really only serves as a psuedo damage reduction CD.

Mr Shrimp, on 06 September 2012 - 02:45 PM, said:

I tested this in mists. Had 6 set dwayna for the aoe regen on a heal skill. Went up to a random person and swapped to my med kit and that gave them the regen boon.

This is amazing and good to know. I always run strict support/healing with elixir gun with my dungeon group. I am most assuredly running with this rune set and med kit next time we go. Is there a CD on it, or can you constantly switch into med kit and keep up the regen?

Edited by theorangeshield, 06 September 2012 - 02:54 PM.

[Chemist]

All of this has been noted. I've gradually been finding a balance between enough toughness and enough crit. I still run 25% unbuffed crit, and with medkit + elixir B I maintain fury pretty much 100% of the time leaving me at 45% crit. I'm curious to see how firearms performs side by side with bombs.

Also, a handy trick with grenades. Try holding down right click when moving (I'm sure a lot of you may already). While holding down your right click, the grenades are centered on your character just as if they were bombs, except the detonate instantly. Pretty effective if you ask me

[Phineas Poe]

Scrimps, on 06 September 2012 - 12:21 PM, said:

For some reason people are not adding precision to their builds when doing bomb builds. It makes no sense. I also suspect that a pure Precision + Crit damage + Power build (in that order), for rifles, is going to hit HARD in WvW.

I don't run a full 30 in Firearms because I think Inertial Converter (15 in Tools) is the Be-All-End-All "Oh Shit" Button.

I've been debating whether or not it's better to have 30 in Firearms or 30 in Explosives. I don't feel like I use the Grenade Kit enough to warrant the full 30 for Grenadier, but Steel-Packed Explosives is a pretty amazing bonus. I'm not sure I'd want to go without that, even though I do run with Precise Sights.

Edited by Phineas_Poe, 06 September 2012 - 02:57 PM.

[Snarvid]

Phineas_Poe, on 06 September 2012 - 02:56 PM, said:

I don't run a full 30 in Firearms because I think Inertial Converter (15 in Tools) is the Be-All-End-All "Oh Shit" Button.

I've been debating whether or not it's better to have 30 in Firearms or 30 in Explosives. I don't feel like I use the Grenade Kit enough to warrant the full 30 for Grenadier, but Steel-Packed Explosives is a pretty amazing bonus. I'm not sure I'd want to go without that, even though I do run with Precise Sights.

Wiki does not list min cool down for inertial converter. Is there one?  Again, medkit ftw if not.

[theorangeshield]

Phineas_Poe, on 06 September 2012 - 02:56 PM, said:

I don't run a full 30 in Firearms because I think Inertial Converter (15 in Tools) is the Be-All-End-All "Oh Shit" Button.

I've been debating whether or not it's better to have 30 in Firearms or 30 in Explosives. I don't feel like I use the Grenade Kit enough to warrant the full 30 for Grenadier, but Steel-Packed Explosives is a pretty amazing bonus. I'm not sure I'd want to go without that, even though I do run with Precise Sights.

I think the 30 points in Firearms or Explosives really comes down to the decision to stick with bombs or grenades. There's no reason to use both with all the great elixirs we have to fill up utility slots and the only way grenade damage seems to be able to compete with bombs is with the grenadier trait. Personally, I'm still trying to find out exactly how well our bomb and grenade kits scale with our power and precision stats. It's so early in the game and I've heard so much conflicting information. First I heard to ignore power and go straight precision/condition damage, and now I'm hearing the exact opposite.

Snarvid, on 06 September 2012 - 12:42 PM, said:

I'm not familiar with that builder and didn't see items.  If you use http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/ it has item choices. Makes it hard to assess how much anyone likes the healing off elixir bombs for if they aren't gearing for heals.

I was thinking of running an elixir bomber build with full cleric/fighter loadout to leverage the bonus power off healing and toughness.  Clearly won't do the damage of a dedicated glass cannon but should have a lot more durability between high toughness and steady heals.  Too many alts to have gotten there yet.

Bombs in dungeons... suicide?  Seems like a good steady support option and also insanely close to the action.

Edit: And while I'm at it, what is "using a healing skill"?  Any skill that heals or just hitting 6 (in which case, just equipping a med kit?).

Just from my experience, if you want to go for a support build to do dungeons with, you'll pick up the 30 points in inventions but it won't be for the bomb healing trait. I go 20 Firearms/ 30 Inventions/ 20 Tools. Using pistol/shield for the extra 90 toughness trait and ALL the vitality you'll will also likely make you the most tankiest person in the group. For utilities I do elixir gun/elixir C and elixir R. Elixir C is amazing for condition heavy fights because it has a pretty short CD and boosts your allies power in the process. Elixir R is handsdown the most amazing and best utility skill you can carry into a dungeon. It is basically a long range revive and that becomes amazing on a lot of boss fights. Elixir gun with the CD reduction trait is a straight up beast and if you run with a staff ele like I do, you can do a FANTASTIC combo by stacking your elixir orb with his aoe heal, elixir gun toolbelt skill with a blast finisher from either your supply drop or shield 4+ ability. The healing from this can be VERY substational.

[Phineas Poe]

Snarvid, on 06 September 2012 - 03:08 PM, said:

Wiki does not list min cool down for inertial converter. Is there one?  Again, medkit ftw if not.

I don't believe so, because it doesn't list there being one in-game either. It always procs when I need to, as well ... but I can test that for you.

[theorangeshield]

Snarvid, on 06 September 2012 - 03:08 PM, said:

Wiki does not list min cool down for inertial converter. Is there one?  Again, medkit ftw if not.

Wow, I just realized how useful that could be. I REALLY need to start using medkit. I've been using elixir H from 1-80 like a complete boob.

[Phineas Poe]

Yeah there definitely is a cooldown, and lengthy one. It's definitely 60 to 90 seconds.

But ... to be honest, how often are you sitting at less than 25% health? I think it's still more worthwhile than sinking 60 points in Explosives and Firearms, not to mention some pretty decent trait options like Speedy Gadgets and a baseline 10% movement speed buff of Leg Mods ... which may or may not stack with Power Shoes.

Edited by Phineas_Poe, 06 September 2012 - 03:23 PM.

[theorangeshield]

Also I'd like to get some clarification as to where the farm spot OP was referring to is? Is he talking about the island on the southwest corner of ruins of orr?

[Khlaw]

RyuujinZERO, on 06 September 2012 - 12:18 AM, said:

I'm only level 50 but a big bomber fan. I'm just curious why you have grenades and bombs together, as I'd thought bringing elixir U would be more useful; then you can toss the elixir to create a screen if ranged mobs are being a nuisance, or if you drink then you can spam the living hell out of bombs while hiding inside a smoke screen for insane damage.

I run bombs and grenades primarilty because I like to pull from range with grenades.  It's extremely easy to have a pack of mobs bleeding, chilled, poisoned, and finally blinded before they get into bomb range, where you can add burning, confusion, (another) blind, and cripple.

That's a helluva lot of conditions.

Edited by Khlaw, 06 September 2012 - 05:05 PM.

[Chemist]

theorangeshield, on 06 September 2012 - 03:32 PM, said:

Also I'd like to get some clarification as to where the farm spot OP was referring to is? Is he talking about the island on the southwest corner of ruins of orr?

Cursed Shore, where Grenth spawns (Cathedral of Silence). The only real problems I have farming down there are the occasional root/impair that stops me from trucking along. A lot of line of sight pulling is necessary down there, but it can be done if you manage it correctly.


Also- all of you guys rock for playing engineers, and already creating a welcoming environment for our fellow tinkers. To those of you who have made it to 80, congrats on making it through to truly see what this class can do. Hands down some of the most fun on any class I've played in MMO's over the past 12 years.

Edited by Chemist, 06 September 2012 - 06:10 PM.

[theorangeshield]

Chemist, on 06 September 2012 - 06:06 PM, said:

Cursed Shore, where Grenth spawns (Cathedral of Silence). The only real problems I have farming down there are the occasional root/impair that stops me from trucking along. A lot of line of sight pulling is necessary down there, but it can be done if you manage it correctly.


Also- all of you guys rock for playing engineers, and already creating a welcoming environment for our fellow tinkers. To those of you who have made it to 80, congrats on making it through to truly see what this class can do. Hands down some of the most fun on any class I've played in MMO's over the past 12 years.

Thanks!

And yeah, this is my dream class. It's what I wanted the engineer in Warhammer Online to be. It would be perfect if turrets were more viable, though. I tried out a pure turret  build a couple days ago and was amazed at how squishy/ineffective they still were.

[Chemist]

Turrets are just temp. meat shields for escaping, and hardly that :/

[Nivrax]

Try using Mine instead of Elixir B (or Granades). You can drop Fire Bomb, use Minefield, detonate it, and depending on spread get instantly 6-15 stacks of Might, or with Smoke Bomb for Stealth.