Condi - Ranger versus Engineer

I have been experimenting a t bit with A/T Ranger and P/P Engineer. For my part, it seems that the ranger is more effective with conditions, while also being easier to play. These are the Meta Builds, at least while I am testing them out, http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Engineer_-_Condition_Raids and http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Druid_-_A/T_Condition. I am still working to improve the rotation on my Engineer and so my initial perceptions may yet change, but I do find myself wondering if others share the same perception.

As far as utility goes, the engineer does have an edge, but at this point I find that the Ranger holds the edge for sustaining the condi damage (and the heals aren't that bad either).

Please share your thoughts, especially about the engineer rotation. 

In my experience Engineers wreck Rangers condition-wise, as long as you master its rotations. It's not that easy to get it right and maximize its DPS.

That said, condi druids aren't bad, they're just... superfluous. They can't be the main healer, and are rarely wanted as a secondary healer since 1 should be enough; Their exclusive damage bonuses are good, but they lack the top-tier DPS in first place, nullifying their differential; And they lack some very welcome utilities brought by Engineers, like blast finishers and much more crowd control.

In result, I run all raid bosses in a weekly manner and haven't seen a single condi ranger being present, much less desired. ANET just confined them in the healer role, going a step back in direction of the holy trinity and dedicated class roles.

» Edited on: 2016-04-07 09:32:20

I am still not convinced, although I am closing the gap between the two.  There is definitely a higher risk/reward ratio with the engineer. To max the DPS, the engineer has to get in close and personal. 

As far as not seeing another condi ranger in a group? I don't typically buy those kinds of arguements. MMO are very much a go with the flavor of the day crowd. Because you said you have personally experienced this, I am sticking it out with my Engy, a little longer.

As far as that rotation goes, most of what I have seen so far indicates simply to keep "these" skills on cooldown, and prioritize "these" other skills as possible. Wolfineers guidance is easy enough - always on cooldown: Blowtorch, Flame Bomb and Shrapnel Grenade. I will work in the others listed on metabattle over the weekend.  Yulan - Have you seen anything different?

Only once have I seen 4-6k ticks with the Engineer. I see 4k ticks consistantly with the A/T Ranger, even though the timing of my roatation is still weak, and the Ranger wasn't geared quite as well. The Ranger also has the benefit of staying at range, with a simpler rotation. I will keep plugging away at the Engineer, though.

Not that most may be interested, but I thought I would post an update. 

I did achieve 6-7k ticks on the vale guardian, even while interrupting the rotation by heading back to the green circles. At one point, I had 7.5K fire + whatever bleeding was at the time (usually 1.5-2k). Using Wolfineer's (Now Sherriff Sauer's) guide and focusing on those three skills helped a bunch. Needing to be at range really does interrupt the damage, though. While Engineer does have higher damage over all, it is much more sensitive to positing than is the A/T Ranger, if that is helpful for anyone to know.

The Pistol's most effective skill is most effective in melee range, and bombs are melee range. I found the A/T ranger to have a little bit more survivability, even as a glass build. The power damage from the A/T Ranger isn't very close to Condi Eng, though. The direct damage from the Axe seems to be about 3/4ths that of Grenades, although higher than pistol auto.

If you do not care about raids condi ranger is by far the best solo running around class there is and if you balance a lot of its stats out you are almost unkillable and everything dies almost as fast as any power set up on any toon and I have tried them all this patch to find which is the best solo toon for this patch. Not that you cant solo with others just quality of life to my liking lol is the ranger. . I run Vit Heal Condi Armor with Power Pre Condi weapons and I have same on trinkets but with two of the 6 being zerker. Brings Toughness to almost 1400 and thats more than enough with about 22k hp. Axe and Torch are Power Pre Condi and daggers are Vit Heal Condi so when it hits the fan insta decent heals when your heal is on cooldown. Its like the old Apothecary build with out the toughness and dwayna runes the self heal with ungent is that good with out them and the heal on every poison application is nuts. I can walk up to most legendarys and just hit 1 and 4 and spider poison beast dots and they all poison and heal me. Then when you are not in arggh its killing me mode kiting around with and axe and torch can just melt stuff quick. Fighting swarms of mobs is doable and if you do go down you have your pet rev button in your down skills so death almost never happens :) I could not reproduce the same on an engi after trying multiple builds. 

If we get a taunt which we have but not in a build that works this way we would be the best tanks in the game lol