Future of support dps builds? (fractals/strikes)

[Nazarick.9653]

Quickness scrapper made redundant by overpopulated HFB...rifle mech now dead in the water...is there anything left for dps support builds? Can power alac survive with mace, or will it have to be piano dots if we want to dps? Or is it going to be HAM's only from now on, with the rest of us going back to super-squishy holo like the last few years?

 

(engineer is supposed to be able to do it all, and it was great to have both buff support options available as dps...now it sounds like heal/support is the only viable thing outside of dps)

[Kuma.1503]

Quick scrapper is good. It wasn't impacted at all by this patch. 

I use more boon duration on mine than SC recommends because it lets me save Function Gyro for rezzing. I still top dps with it in some pug runs using Hammer and nades. (Note: hammer does more dps than rifle, even in non-golem rights. I only recommend rifle in fights that heavily favor range, or when you need an extra immobilize). 

I don't know how the FB nerfs will play out. Condi quick brand might not be a blatantly better version of us anymore now that they share DPS pages with their support pages. 

 

Power Alacrity Mech gets more annoying to play due to the mechanical genius changes, but it survives. Mace was always the superior option for alac mech. Some people use rifle for range, but Mace does more damage, helps with alac gen, provides regen and vigor on the side, and we can fall back on mortar or nades for range if need be. 

 

Heal scrapper is playable, but I doubt it's able to compete with HB even after the nerfs. It still needs fundamental reworking before it becomes a proper good build. 

 

HAM also survives, but becomes more obnoxious to use. 

 

Overall, support engineer builds aren't dead this patch, but mech support builds become a lot more clunky to use.