How Many Kits Do You Run?

As the title suggest, how many kits do you run on your builds? Mainly for PvP and WvW since in general the PvE builds would run the 4 kit meta builds. For the sake of this poll I would consider photon forge as a kit since it provides a skill set change. I know they aren't entirely similar, but I just want to see how many kit swaps people are comfortable with.

As a follow up question, if you picked zero, why don't you run kits?

If you run holosmith, but don't run any other kits, why?

Hmm I had an option to pick 0, but I don't see it anymore. Sorry about that.

. . . .

In PvP? As few as possible. Sometimes Elixir Gun if I think it'll help with sustain.

The reason why is fairly intuitive -- most kits were balanced for vanilla PvP, where their long casting times made sense. In the "spam everything" powercreep of PoF, these slow skills rarely provide that much utility or damage

In PvE? Sure, I'll run bomb kit and grenade kit for damage and ranged damage.

Usually 1, the less i can run, the better i can focus in using an specific kit to the max potential, at max 2, if i don't see another way to build around. i discourage the usage of 3+ kits for pvp/wvw; because at this point, it becomes a mess of cooldown management and you start forgetting several skills that you could use for attack/defend, etc.

Sometimes it goes to 1, sometimes 3 but with less worthless utility skills being added I tend to gravitate around 2 kits. I'd have been a fan of replacing nearly everything with kits but the current channeling time on most of kits (counting switching) will bite you in the back against anyone loaded with interrupts and fast attacks, which is pretty much everyone these days.

If you take Holo mode as a "kit" then i'd normally run 2 (Holo + Toolkit). However, in some cases i would use just holo mode without any kits. I do this regardless of weapon choice.For WvW Roket Boots are a must-have for me for the mobility it provides, so the other two slots are usually elexir S or U and Tool kit. Sometimes i'll swap toolkit for Spectrum Shield. Rocket boot in - pop elexir U and start smashing things, if you see someone about to focus you pop Spectrum shield to negate a huge chunk of damage while still dishing out your own under quickness boon. Works especially well against squishy targets geared towards high damage. Corona Burst and elexir U provide a decent stability uptime in case of danger rocket boot away, swap out of holo and if you're runing sword/shield use shield skills.Aside from the gear shield that toolkit has, its caltrops are useful in duels against classes that tend to melee a lot, or to make it harder for the melee classes to catch up to you. Pull is obviously a great utility.I feel like other kits don't provide enough/are too situational/need high investment for minimal rewards to be of any use. Mortar kit has it's utility, but nothing substantial, auto attack is underwhelming, too weak, slow and unreliable. Bomb kit works best when being chased, but not vice versa, doesn't add much aside from damage and some utility, can't be relied on in butt-clenching moments. Nade kit would be in a much much better spot if it's velocity trait would have been made baseline. Flame kit is just meh for anything that isn't condi based. In PvE it's a great tagging kit to run around with commander. Elexir gun is probably the second best kit after tool kit because you don't have to invest for it to be good. That being said it could use a update, some of its skills are outdated, unsubstantial.

I say 3 because it's probably most often. J have a another 1 kit build which I use almost as much but not quite.

I wish as few as possible was a choice, cool down management is annoying. Scrapper power build I run 0 - 1 depending if want to play flamethrower. Support run medkit and elixir gun. Holosmith run 0. Core run rifle/grenade for PVE.

I picked 2 - Holo and Mortar. I primarily do open world stuff, Holo is great for burst + survivability, Mortar is great for utility + ranged tagging.

I'm going to say 0 as I don't think counting Holosmith is a proper assessment on the use of Kits. While it acts like a Kit I think it would be fair to say that not everyone who plays Holosmith either thinks of it as one or would agree that it is one. From a pure research and analytical perspective, it is best to just go with the traditional Core Engineer Kits to avoid any dispute of terms.

As for why I don't need to. They don't add enough firepower to make me give up other, more useful, abilities. I typically have Gatorade U for vigor, quickness, but especially stability. I typically make use of Rifle when in PvP and so I down the drink right before I use Overcharge Shot so that I'm still standing when the dust settles (proves very useful when I want to stop someone from stomping a teammate). I then tend to run Photon Wall and typically Hard Light Arena. My elite skill tends to be the plasma rifle and I use the healing turret. Hard Light Arena is the only skill that I typically trade out but if I trade something else in it is rarely going to be a Kit.

Thanks for the replies everyone! I tend to run 1 kit if I'm running core or scrapper, usually either tool kit or elixir gun as they provide the most utility out of all the kits. However, I find that when I run holosmith I have the most fun when I use a kit along with PF. Kits that can drop fields like elixir gun, bomb kit, mortar kit, or medkit are better since PF can take advantage of it with leap, blast, and projectile finishers. Elixir gun is probably the best pairing since it offers more sustain than the others along with a break stun, mobility, and a blast finisher of its own. On top of that it is decent team support with the condi removal.

@Peutrifectus.4830 said:I say 3 because it's probably most often. J have a another 1 kit build which I use almost as much but not quite.

When you run 3 kits which ones do you typically pick? How do you design the build so it has all the break stun, sustain, mobility, control, and burst for a PvP build?

@Zex Anthon.8673 said:Thanks for the replies everyone! I tend to run 1 kit if I'm running core or scrapper, usually either tool kit or elixir gun as they provide the most utility out of all the kits. However, I find that when I run holosmith I have the most fun when I use a kit along with PF. Kits that can drop fields like elixir gun, bomb kit, mortar kit, or medkit are better since PF can take advantage of it with leap, blast, and projectile finishers. Elixir gun is probably the best pairing since it offers more sustain than the others along with a break stun, mobility, and a blast finisher of its own. On top of that it is decent team support with the condi removal.

@Peutrifectus.4830 said:I say 3 because it's probably most often. J have a another 1 kit build which I use almost as much but not quite.

Egun, tool kit, grenade kit. With rifle it satisfies all of the above.

@Peutrifectus.4830 said:

@Zex Anthon.8673 said:Thanks for the replies everyone! I tend to run 1 kit if I'm running core or scrapper, usually either tool kit or elixir gun as they provide the most utility out of all the kits. However, I find that when I run holosmith I have the most fun when I use a kit along with PF. Kits that can drop fields like elixir gun, bomb kit, mortar kit, or medkit are better since PF can take advantage of it with leap, blast, and projectile finishers. Elixir gun is probably the best pairing since it offers more sustain than the others along with a break stun, mobility, and a blast finisher of its own. On top of that it is decent team support with the condi removal.

@Peutrifectus.4830 said:I say 3 because it's probably most often. J have a another 1 kit build which I use almost as much but not quite.

Hmm i might swap out grenade kit with elixir u and add elite mortar kit. Having a second break stun makes life easier and the stab is really good for synergy with rifle. Plus grenade kit offers zero utility whereas mortar kit provides a blast finisher a water field, a light field, and a ice field.

Just made this build. Its focused around getting tons of blast finishers for sustain. Try to avoid using poison gas shell because you don't want to override your other fields for blasting. For dps you want to drop endothermic shell and spam mortar shot for melee and spam hip shot for range. Try to dps when you have quickness up and focus on blasts and fields when its down. Blunderbuss and crowbar are your best burst skills.

I tested it out in un-ranked and plat. It struggled a little in plat, but that's probably because I was not used to the build and CDs. Some things I noticed off the bat: the build lacks a decent way to stomp and the build lacks swiftness. Tool belt performed decent with gear shield and magnet as utility and good damage on throw wrench and pry bar. However, I think thumper turret suits the build better since it adds two blast finishers and another break stun with stab. I also found handling 2 kits was much simpler than 3, but again that's probably because I hadn't played the build enough to really get to know it.

Depends on my build. My scrapper build uses 3 kits(med kit, elixir gun, and mortar kit), while my holosmith build only uses photon forge.

Usually, I use 4.

In our WvW-Guild we like to blast smoke screens, so as a heal-scrapper I take medi kit, elixir gun, bulwark gyro, bomb kit, and mortar.

It's actually not a problem since the CDs on mortar are pretty long and on bomb kit, I only really use glue-bomb in a fight. But it's important to have the smoke screen ready for blasts.Smoke-Screen-invis + nekro port for maximum surprise effect. ^^(we're usually 25, so 2 engis with bomb kit and 2 nekro ports are used).

On my conversion holo build (no heal, but +50% condi removal + top-dmg) I use medi kit, elixir gun, hard light arena, bomb kit, and Photon-Forge.

I run 4 kits both in PvE and PvP. Why 4? Because I'm Karras, the freaking nutcase. ArenaNet's lack of trying to properly nerf Photon Forge and buff the kits has pushed me over the edge, I've gone completely insane and I'm desperately trying to keep core engineer viable, especially in non PvE game modes.

I count PF as a sloppy kit, so I would say I use 2 kits most of the time (PF and FT).However I tend to add a third one kite often, usually EGun, Nades or Mortar, depending on the content I'm doing.

I pretty much always use Toolkit, regardless of build. There are exceptions and I rotate between 4 or 5 main builds, but my favorites all use Toolkit. Magnet, Pry Bar, Throw Wrench and Gear Shield are all such great skills, combined with Power Wrench for low CD block, pull and elite recharge, I just have a hard time not taking it. I actually strongly prefer it over Elixir S even because I find a low cooldown block and unblockable pull saves me more often than a couple seconds of invuln every 60 seconds since I never use HGH.

@Hoodie.1045 said:I run 4 kits both in PvE and PvP. Why 4? Because I'm Karras, the freaking nutcase.Why not 6 then?holosmith, medikit, elixir gun, granades, bombs and mortar. ^^

I use 6 when I want to have fun and enjoy the build I'm playing cause I think comboing between all the kits is what made engi fun for me in the first place.

When I have to tryhard I only have Forge because that's all the meta build really allows for.

Basically, I'd run all kits if it were as strong as the other builds but it isn't so I can't when I want to climb.

Mortar kit and that's all I need. Not the greatest but I love using it so much.

On scrapper mainly mortar.If not mortar i use flamethrower for open world.On holo none. I use 2 turret some exceeds and elixirs.

Running a Condi holo, so I obviously have flamethrower in there to dish out the burn when doing my rotation. I use elixir gun to add some mobility and survivability to my build, as well as light support for group. The longer range on elixir gun helps when I Have to deal damage, but am immobilized far

At most I use 2, and I always at least have 1. For PvE condi? Yea, Flamethrower and maybe a 'nade or bomb kit.WvW and PvP? I definitely like that toolkit.Long range? Sometimes I swap in the mortar for WvW zerging.In my opinion, more than 3 kits is just too clunky.