Flametank is not so hot

When I first started Engineer I quickly settled on a Pistol/Pistol turret set-up.  That saw me all the way through Queensdale and Kessex Hills and looking back I really enjoyed it.  But I felt something was lacking; fights were long and slow and I felt under-powered so around the time I moved to Gendarran Fields I began dabbling with a Flamethrower build.

My trusty turret build

I had seen and heard numerous people raving about how the Flametank carves though mobs in PvE but when I switched to the build I immediately felt weaker and much more vulnerable.  I'd always felt quite safe with my turret build and could even take down the odd champion solo.  With the flamethrower even one or two mobs became a struggle.  Maybe I was doing it wrong?  I decided to give it some more time.

By the time I got to the far end of Gendarran Fields and, having done the first few hearts in Harathi, I knew I needed a change.  Fighting Veterans became a 50/50 proposition, I just wasn't putting out enough damage and was losing the battle of attrition.  I lost skill challenges for Pete's sake!  I tried upgrading my armour and trinkets but that did almost nothing. I wanted to persist with the build because I had heard such good things about it but it was putting me off playing the character.  That's bad.

Part of the problem is that, because Guild Wars 2 is still a relatively new game, when people talk about builds they almost exclusive refer to level 80 implicitly.  Also, unless stated otherwise, it's usually safe to assume that anyone posting about a build is using it in PvP!  As a result, when people rave about a build, it can be hard to tell what level they are playing it at and whether it will work well at lower levels.

"Fire burns!"

I think maybe the flamethrower build is highly dependent on getting to 60+ and access to HGH or Juggernaut.  In fact, looking at the build I linked, all the flamethrower specific traits are only available once you unlock the Master tier at level 40 and things really begins to take shape at 50.  Maybe I just jumped the (pun intended) gun?

With this in mind I decided it was time to hit up my personal story for some easy exp to power through from 38 to 40.  This let me unlock the aforementioned Master traits and access some new gear but with this new found determination came a desire to try a new build.  Something that wasn't turrents, grenades or a flamethrower.

I really wanted to try those pistols again.