Is Flamethrower Viable?

[seo.8092]

Hello everyone!I am a pretty casual gamer who have managed to produce a single level 80 character so far. A Warrior to be precise, at which point I stopped playing since me being casual meant that no one ever wanted to have me in any instance ever..

Anyway.Now I am back and playing with an Engineer alongside a pal and we are having some great fun. So far I am having a blast using the flamethrower for the PvE content and I was kinda wondering if I can keep using it when I reach level 80. I was planning on joining some casual guild this time around and attempt some instances.

I've read that you kinda need to master kit swapping in order to be even remotely efficient and that's something I struggle greatly with as I am really bad at multitasking.

[Eben.5786]

I'm in the same boat as you! Love flamethrower + equipped weapon but struggle using 3 kits in a rotation.

The engineer has some great utility skills i'd love to use but don't want to gimp myself in dungeons/fractals.

[seo.8092]

@Eben.5786 said:I'm in the same boat as you! Love flamethrower + equipped weapon but struggle using 3 kits in a rotation.

Precisely this.

[Karmic.5964]

Do whatcha like. I recently fell back in love with the flamethrower kit. It excels when you are part of a meta map zerg and want to AOE tag mobs.

[seo.8092]

@Karmic.5964 said:Do whatcha like. I recently fell back in love with the flamethrower kit. It excels when you are part of a meta map zerg and want to AOE tag mobs.

I am just worried that I'll end up gimped.

[Turin.6921]

If you want to play engineer efficiently in PvE kit swapping is essential. Its the engineer´s thing.

As for Flamethrower viability I am not sure what you mean.

If you are asking if you can use only flamethrower and nothing else...well you will be handicapping the class in terms of damage for sure. That being said for easy and medium dungeon paths, T1 and T2 fractals and open world PvE it does not matter that much. You should be fine. Just do not join speed runs and you should be cool. Also for zerg open world PvE flamethrower is great for AoE and tagging.

If you are asking if flamethrower is used on high level play then yes...Flamethrower is essential for the good PvE condition builds. But it is not used alone. You constantly shift between flamethrower, grenades and bombs. Power builds on the other hand do not use it.

Good PvE play btw in engineer has nothing to do with multitasking. If you are thinking about which kit to shift to it is impossible to play correctly. The engineer thing (and most classes in high level PvE game, but the engi in particular) is to train muscle memory to shift between the kits as fast as possible. So it is not multitasking., but doing many things in series without pausing to think about it.

[alceste.8712]

I run the WvW flamethrower build for open world, story instances, and WvW. the build is a lot of fun. For raids and high end fractals, the condition build simply produces a lot more dps.

[Ivantreil.3092]

@alceste.8712 said:I run the WvW flamethrower build for open world, story instances, and WvW. the build is a lot of fun. For raids and high end fractals, the condition build simply produces a lot more dps.

I was thinking about how a ft focused build would workout, but for wvw... how you are making it workout?, retalation and spellbreakers arent anhilating you?

[Ivantreil.3092]

As for OP, FT can hit decently in a condi build, so with that, and p/p you should have some great fun with it.

In a past it used to workout with power, but balances have come, and now, the AA is the only skill worthwhile in a power setup, but i'm still not sure if its superior to the rifle aa making an apples to apples comparison.

Some tips.

Your AA and your second skill (when blasted) ignore walls , so if you see anyone trying to defend himself by getting behind a prop or a wall, you can still damage them with these and destroy their plans.

Your second skill its also an extra heal, its a blast combo, and blasting it with the healing turret its an extra heal that its always is appreciated to have, always remember to use if you are in a hurry, even when you aren't, just so you remember to make use of this combo often.

Your fith skill is a safe stomper, when you see your opponent casting an interrupt, use your fith skill, it's an instant cast skill so it doesn't interrupt your stomping process, and denies your enemy from preventing the stomp, just make sure to use it at the right moment, its useless if its casted right away, as it can be removed with a simple AA.

A note: If going condi, make sure you never interrupt the AA of the FT, or you will drop a lot in damage, it is essential that the AA finishes the full cast if you use it.

[seo.8092]

@Ivantreil.3092 said:As for OP, FT can hit decently in a condi build, so with that, and p/p you should have some great fun with it.

I am not a very PvP oriented person and will most likely never do that. I was thinking for PvE content.

[Ivantreil.3092]

@seo.8092 said:

@Ivantreil.3092 said:As for OP, FT can hit decently in a condi build, so with that, and p/p you should have some great fun with it.

I am not a very PvP oriented person and will most likely never do that. I was thinking for PvE content.

I see, but even if you don't play pvp, some of the tips i said can also be applied to pve, same thing with the condi or power setup.

[Ardid.7203]

@seo.8092 said:

@Ivantreil.3092 said:As for OP, FT can hit decently in a condi build, so with that, and p/p you should have some great fun with it.

I am not a very PvP oriented person and will most likely never do that. I was thinking for PvE content.

Ivantreil said p/p, not PvP: It means Pistol + Pistol, the most usual weapon set for Condi Builds.

[Anthony.7630]

I am super casual in pve and i just do burn stacking and grenade and bomb tool belt skill.

I almost never press most of my skills except blow torch flame thrower skills(except 1) fire bomb tool belt skills and thats it. I always go for condi duration over damage with viper gear.

I know i am not playing optimitely but i am a casual.

To me casual = someone with low reflexes and muscle memory.

Engineer requires a ton of muscle memory and lightning reflexes. Especially with the elixir gun in spvp wpvp

So being casual is rough for engineer. I have learnef to hot key alt1-alt5 as tool belt skills but i still suck

Keep practicing and trying to brand the muscle memory on your self. Engineer needs a lot of reflexes and memory or they do poor damage and end up dead in.pvp.

[Jonny.6013]

WorldofEnders/Bootts Bad Builds - one man army build is probably worth a look. Definitely different and a lot of fun.*

*Which is my personal definition of viable... :)

[Obtena.7952]

@seo.8092 said:

@Eben.5786 said:I'm in the same boat as you! Love flamethrower + equipped weapon but struggle using 3 kits in a rotation.

Precisely this.

Forget the kit swapping if it's not for you ... Just camp FT. I only swap to rifle to get more barbreaks and bleeds. Something like the following.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vdAQFAUlcThqrY5VwWLw6FL3FV4EGQZmYB9DhI4CGhBAA-TBSFQBE4CC0OdAiUJYvOQgGi6p+zSU+Ri9HAwDAIAACA/23+2n/MpA+aNA-e

[seo.8092]

@Ardid.7203 said:

@seo.8092 said:

@Ivantreil.3092 said:As for OP, FT can hit decently in a condi build, so with that, and p/p you should have some great fun with it.

I am not a very PvP oriented person and will most likely never do that. I was thinking for PvE content.

Ivantreil said p/p, not PvP: It means Pistol + Pistol, the most usual weapon set for Condi Builds.Ahh, that makes sense. I use Pistol/Pistol at the moment since I think its a fun dual weapon.

[Sylvari.2953]

I use P/P, Flamethrower, Elixir Gun and Bombs on my Celestial Engi main. I love it and Flamethrower provides nice damage. I'm also bad at multitasking but then again, I don't use specific rotations. I like to improvize, use different skills depending on the situation. I don't use strict, pre-determined rotations, I don't know why people do that but that would totally kill the fun for me!

[RedSPINE.7845]

Can't imagine playing that much Elixirs without the HGH trait though :astonished:

[Ojimaru.8970]

@seo.8092 said:Hello everyone!I am a pretty casual gamer who have managed to produce a single level 80 character so far. A Warrior to be precise, at which point I stopped playing since me being casual meant that no one ever wanted to have me in any instance ever..

Anyway.Now I am back and playing with an Engineer alongside a pal and we are having some great fun. So far I am having a blast using the flamethrower for the PvE content and I was kinda wondering if I can keep using it when I reach level 80. I was planning on joining some casual guild this time around and attempt some instances.

I've read that you kinda need to master kit swapping in order to be even remotely efficient and that's something I struggle greatly with as I am really bad at multitasking.

For the longest time, Engineer was the profession I had the most trouble playing. Kit swapping is one thing, but keeping track of so many invisible cooldowns was a huge mental gap I had to cross. So, like you, I decided to just stick with Flamethrower, and continued to do so through HoT. This was my cheap-and-easy Power Flamethrower build that I used while slowly learning the profession.

While I'm still nowhere as proficient with the Engineer as I would like to be, I will say it's not about multi-tasking. Like how Reaper from Overwatch would toss his guns when out of ammo, Engineers are about "tossing" kits aside for a new one when all the skill cooldowns were expended. For example, I would start with the Grenade kit, chuck everything and the kitchen sink at the enemy, then switch to Bomb kit to do the same, then to my Mortar, then Rifle, etc. Eventually I began to learn which skills to prioritize for specific situations (CC, damage, healing, etc.), but that took me months.

[Mina Ion.7852]

Flamethrower (and condi engi in general) was my favorite way of playing Engi back in Vanilla. But the two elite specs for engi both seem power based. Kinda left a bad taste in my mouth and haven't played engi in a while :angry:

[RedSPINE.7845]

@Ojimaru.8970 said:

@seo.8092 said:Hello everyone!I am a pretty casual gamer who have managed to produce a single level 80 character so far. A Warrior to be precise, at which point I stopped playing since me being casual meant that no one ever wanted to have me in any instance ever..

Anyway.Now I am back and playing with an Engineer alongside a pal and we are having some great fun. So far I am having a blast using the flamethrower for the PvE content and I was kinda wondering if I can keep using it when I reach level 80. I was planning on joining some casual guild this time around and attempt some instances.

I've read that you kinda need to master kit swapping in order to be even remotely efficient and that's something I struggle greatly with as I am really bad at multitasking.

For the longest time, Engineer was the profession I had the most trouble playing. Kit swapping is one thing, but keeping track of so many invisible cooldowns was a huge mental gap I had to cross. So, like you, I decided to just stick with Flamethrower, and continued to do so through HoT. This was my cheap-and-easy

Power Flamethrower build

that I used while slowly learning the profession.

While I'm still nowhere as proficient with the Engineer as I would like to be, I will say it's not about multi-tasking. Like how Reaper from Overwatch would toss his guns when out of ammo, Engineers are about "tossing" kits aside for a new one when all the skill cooldowns were expended. For example, I would start with the Grenade kit, chuck everything and the kitchen sink at the enemy, then switch to Bomb kit to do the same, then to my Mortar, then Rifle, etc. Eventually I began to learn which skills to prioritize for specific situations (CC, damage, healing, etc.), but that took me

months

.

If you're doing that, I think you're doing wrong. I played engineer for 2 years and that's a thing I only recently get : don't waste time using all the abilities on a single kit before swapping. You have to visualize your kits like stacked lines of weapon skills you can swap to by pressing the key for the right kit. Use only what is effective in your build and ignore the rest. Although, each skill have different CD inside a kit, for example, shrapnel grenades reset faster than poison grenades, so the first time you switch to grenades, use both, and switch to it again only to cast shrapnel, and switch to another kit ...

[Sojourner.4621]

I have been wanting to retry the old power flamethrower juggernaut build (that got nerfed to the ground with flamethrower updates for more burn application) with grieving stats and maximizing burn duration through runes/traits/sigils (Firearms gives 33% automatically, 45% from balth runes, 20% from smoldering sigil, maybe a food buff for the remaining percent.) Am just vaguely curious if it would be able to stand up as a general pve running around setup, where the power jugg just doesn't anymore.

[RedSPINE.7845]

I know it's not logical, but you must maximize bleed stacks on your target in the same time. The minor Hematic Focus gives you 10% crit chance on bleeding targets, and the way FT works (attacking very very fast) can proc as a CC for each tick.

[seo.8092]

@Sojourner.4621 said:I have been wanting to retry the old power flamethrower juggernaut build (that got nerfed to the ground with flamethrower updates for more burn application) with grieving stats and maximizing burn duration through runes/traits/sigils (Firearms gives 33% automatically, 45% from balth runes, 20% from smoldering sigil, maybe a food buff for the remaining percent.) Am just vaguely curious if it would be able to stand up as a general pve running around setup, where the power jugg just doesn't anymore.

Feels like they have done in power-based builds overall. All I ever see in guides are condition.

[Nate.8146]

I love the Flamethrower as it's both good enough and it allows for relaxed play. I've also used it in high level fractals and WvW with good success, even when everyone complains about retaliation. Aside from being a straightforward kit, I love that you don't need to target enemies and that the flame jet does not count as a ranged weapon, so it penetrates reflection. One of the biggest gripes I have with this game is not being able to select targets directly in front of me without having to use my mouse. Kits like flamethrower and grenades are great workarounds to that problem as I'm in complete control with who I want to attack and when. Grenades however have buggy projection maths. Like if you ground target on something larger than you and also right in front of you, you'll throw your grenades up into the sky (ex: Joko's turrets). Stupid things like that just make using the flamethrower kit all the more better.