47 replies to this topic

[MrForz]

In a team with no dedicated condition-damage dealer, you'd be surprised about the bleed capabilities of a Grenade Engineer with a very accurate build.

[CepaCepa]

Dralnu, on 18 January 2013 - 02:56 AM, said:

Epidemic transfers the conditiones to ALL targets in the area, not just to 5, at least in PvE (dunno on WvW since I don't do it).

Just tested this a few days ago, it only transfers to 5 target per execution, you can test it out when you find a large enough group of mobs, typically you don't get 10+ mobs easily unless you're in high level fractals and/or those mobs have very little health in dungeons. As per ALL spells in the game, applying only to 5 people is a hard cap on AoE skills, I originally thought epidemic luckily escape the wrath but it actually doesn't... An exception is things like meteor shower or frostbow #4, where each meteor counts as itself and can hit 5 people, coupled with a large area means they can actually make the most out of huge group aoe, or grenades where each of the 3 grenade can hit 5 people.

[Hika]

The Thief has several spammable AoE abilities

Death Blossom [D/D] (evasive bleed/whirl) - melee
Dancing Dagger [-/D] (bounce cripple) - ranged
Cluster Bomb [SB] (blast/bleed) - ranged
Choking Gas [SB] (poison field) - ranged
Trick Shot [SB] (bounce auto attack) - ranged
Pistol Whip [S/P] (high damage and stationary stun  with frontal cone) - melee
Slice/Slash/Crippling Strike Chain [S/-] (frontal cone auto attack with cripple/weakness) - melee
Black Powder [-/P] (blind/smoke field) - melee

Additionaly you have these utility..
Caltrops (14 sec bleed/cripple)
Dagger Storm (elite bleed/damage/cripple/stability whirl)
Needle Trap (poison/immobalize)

Paired with the Signet of Malice lifetap passive heal you can leach quite a lot of health from enemies using AoE abilities as a Thief

Edited by Hika, 18 January 2013 - 05:55 PM.

[Dralnu]

CepaCepa, on 17 December 2012 - 10:09 PM, said:

[...]epidemic is a 15 sec CD aoe that DO NOT have target number restrictions and have a very big radius [...]

Since you said that on another topic and I've found my screen flooded with numbers after poping Epidemic on events like Grenth's zombie zerg, thought it was one of those AoE skills overlooked for the 5 target limit

On topic, I just have Lv.80 Guardian and Necro, but I party a lot with friends with Warrior, Ele, Thief and Engineer. Among us, the one with better AoE is our Engineer by far, when he comes the trash mobs are just that, trash.

[CepaCepa]

Dralnu, on 18 January 2013 - 06:19 PM, said:

Since you said that on another topic and I've found my screen flooded with numbers after poping Epidemic on events like Grenth's zombie zerg, thought it was one of those AoE skills overlooked for the 5 target limit

On topic, I just have Lv.80 Guardian and Necro, but I party a lot with friends with Warrior, Ele, Thief and Engineer. Among us, the one with better AoE is our Engineer by far, when he comes the trash mobs are just that, trash.

I know lol, in that very post I originally voted for Necro to be Number One because of that... I was corrected by someone else in that thread so I went back and tested it on my Necro... And disappointed!

[Sword Hammer Axe]

Warrior has an insanely effective melee AoE, but not really any fields or things like that, so you can't just passively damage all that well.

Necromancer has marks and wells, but other than dealing conditions and the surprisingly high damage of Well of Suffering, it's not really an AoE profession.

Mesmer is very single target, though the shatter skills and some of the phantasms can give some decent AoE, not to mention Chaos Storm. Still, I'd say it's not much for AoE.

Thief is the same as warrior, though even more single target.

Guardian has some decent melee AoE as well and the symbols, though the supportive part of it makes it somewhat less effective for complete offense.

Engineer has amazing AoE with grenades (and bombs if you know how to play that), but again is a very supportive profession otherwise, and grenades can easily tire your finger out

Ranger has some skills like Barrage and traiting it for piercing shots can make it quite effective against more foes as well, but other than that is also very single target.

Generally I'd say Elementalist is the best AoE profession. There's really no denying that. Though if you really want to play something else I suggest you give Necromancer a try. It's a different sort of AoE, but AoE nonetheless.

[chado2011]

Staff ele, because of all the control options. Aoe is useless if you can't keep people in it.

Granted, I only know 4 of the classes well

[Sakujin]

Ele has good aoe with nice heals.
Engi (crit nade build) has good dmg and stacks vulnerability rapidly for the group.
Guardian is prolly best overall for fractals due to all the protections they can give along with solid aoe GS dps. Anyone noticed how easy the higher lvl fractals are when you have 3-4 guardians in the group where half of them are dpsers?

Edited by Sakujin, 22 January 2013 - 03:51 AM.

[MrForz]

A Condition Grenadier Engineer can prove to do ALOT of damage while increasing the potential damage of your teammates through Vulnerability.

[prince vingador]

MrForz, on 22 January 2013 - 04:17 AM, said:

A Condition Grenadier Engineer can prove to do ALOT of damage while increasing the potential damage of your teammates through Vulnerability.

yep,all this damage from aoe will be nerfed,so lets wait for the pach,unless u are a necro i dont think they will damage the damage there,because they dont do any damage,apart from them, i would wait and see.

[matsif]

prince vingador, on 22 January 2013 - 04:45 AM, said:

yep,all this damage from aoe will be nerfed,so lets wait for the pach,unless u are a necro i dont think they will damage the damage there,because they dont do any damage,apart from them, i would wait and see.

you've obviously never even looked up a grenade bleed build with this statement, much less played one.  Grenade straight dps is crap anymore after the smack of the nerfbat when the class got to use sigils on kits.  condition engineer arguably spreads bleeds better than epidemic necro.  most of the dps comes from bleeds and mass vulnerability giving dps boost to the rest of your party.

grenade engy stacks 20-25 bleeds and vulns in an aoe just by autoattacking when traited and geared for it.  now throw in the other skills and you get more bleeds, blind, freeze (really underrated condition imo), and poison fields.  condition necro (s/d epidemic build) gets bleeds, poison (not field), some cripple.  overall I rank them about the same, but don't go spouting off this crap about it getting nerfed when you don't even know what the build does.

[prince vingador]

matsif, on 22 January 2013 - 05:18 AM, said:

you've obviously never even looked up a grenade bleed build with this statement, much less played one.  Grenade straight dps is crap anymore after the smack of the nerfbat when the class got to use sigils on kits.  condition engineer arguably spreads bleeds better than epidemic necro.  most of the dps comes from bleeds and mass vulnerability giving dps boost to the rest of your party.

grenade engy stacks 20-25 bleeds and vulns in an aoe just by autoattacking when traited and geared for it.  now throw in the other skills and you get more bleeds, blind, freeze (really underrated condition imo), and poison fields.  condition necro (s/d epidemic build) gets bleeds, poison (not field), some cripple.  overall I rank them about the same, but don't go spouting off this crap about it getting nerfed when you don't even know what the build does.

i was talking about raw damage,not condition damage.

[SpreadCheeks]

Raw Melee AoE Dps = Warrior
Raw Range AoE Dps = Eng Rifle w/ static Discharge or Grenades

[Dark]

A ranger. We has barrage.

[Yui San]

Rocky Balmoa, on 02 January 2013 - 10:08 PM, said:

Mesmer...
Just kidding
Engineers used to be great with grenades, bombs and flamethrower, but they are currently quite underpowered. Eles have  a lot of AOE potential with nearly every weapon they use.

I don't have much trouble with dealing AoE on my mesmer. There is always a way to if you try all possibilities. ;-)

[Fenice_86]

I think that this topic must be suspended till monday when we will see what devs have reserved to the AoE Mechanic (brace yourself!)

[Rocky Balmoa]

Yui San, on 24 January 2013 - 03:10 AM, said:

I don't have much trouble with dealing AoE on my mesmer. There is always a way to if you try all possibilities. ;-)

You're right, after playing it more deeply I have changed my mind

Edited by Rocky Balmoa, 24 January 2013 - 03:02 PM.

[HughPR]

Rocky Balmoa, on 24 January 2013 - 03:01 PM, said:

You're right, after playing it more deeply I have changed my mind

Yeah, my mes is now lvl 80, and by using GS and Staff I can do a nice bit of aoe damage. Not a big sword mes fan personally, but I might give it a shot at some point?