Engineer - The life of a suicide-bomber

[Envicta]

Firstly I apologise if the title offends anyone,  its too be taken as a joke, and its probably the best way I can describe my experience as an Engineer!

So I thought I'd do a career writeup for a class that I completely love...

Engineer interested me from the beginning,  but after starting with my WP,   I quickly replaced those interests with fears..      The Engineer class appeared to have low-survival,  low-dps and was almost a comedy-class with gimmicks..

My first experiences of engineers were a rare-breed of RDPS peps,  standing at the back of the pack,  next to his trusted turret and spamming his "Shoot" button..        After the smoke faded,  these engineers were doing worse DPS than the tanks and so I was truly put-off..

But how wrong I was... and I can't begin to say how amazing this class truly is..

My first assumption about this class was that is was a Single-point Ranged DPS class..      I now realise that this is the course of a Mastery-tree called Rifleman....   but nothing like the common "Grenadier" mastery-tree, that the majority of Engineers prefer Pre-T4.

Engineers are in-fact the Gods of AE dmg,    they have so many AE options they cause you to lag due to the huge streams of figures rising from the head of all your victims..   

Acid Bomb -  Does AE dmg over 20 feet for 21 seconds
Friction Burn - AE Cone effect for 30 feet,  doing DoT over 9 seconds to each
Blunderbuss Blast - Instant DD AE upto 40 feet.
Frag Grenade - Does AE Dmg over 20 feet for 15 seconds
Land Mine -  DD to all within 30 feet and knockdown for 2 seconds
Napalm Grenade - Static AE dmg, intensifying over time for 30 seconds
Strafing Run - AE Cone DD upto 65 feet
Sticky Bomb - DD effect with DD AE effect on completion over 20 feet
Static Discharge - Instant AE DD over 30 feet
Grenade Turret - Does AE dmg

I'm currently Rank 19 and I've got Acid Bomb, Frag Grenade and Friction burn running all the time..      I'm using Landmines everytime it comes off CD (15 secs) and I've got my Grenade-turret firing away..

The amount of AE dmg that Engineers can put out is scary!   

I've managed to top Tier-2 damage charts constantly through this AE dmg..     I've just started Tier-3, but I'm confident nothing will change.

Now you probably wonder why I said "Suicide bomber",  well unfortunately while some of these abilities are instant with decent range,    some are not..         I find myself getting just outside of melee range every 20 seconds or so,   just so I can keep my AE Cone abilities rolling.....  getting my Landmine and Turret replaced.          This is where the suicide comes in..          If you can get in and out without being snared,  you're fine!    However if you are trapped...        Its a bad outlook for you....      If you do manage to get out though...    you can now sit back for a bit and enjoy the firework show of dmg numbers from all over the screen!

Changing subject slightly,   I'm sure you've all heard of the Electromagnet,  its generally what people now associate Engineers with..

In my personal opinion,  this is a large mistake and moving out of the grenadier mastery tree is the worst thing could do as our AE dmg is what makes us powerfull.....   not a 20 CD Gimmick..

I will admit that I've got no experience with either the Rifleman or Tinkering tree's, but based on general concensus on the forums,  I see no reason why you'd bother...

Moving on!     So RVR is crazy,  mental,  fast-paced and a hell of a lot of fun.

PVE?  Well there are no negative points here!         Again, we are Gods of AE..

I'm constantly pulling 3-4 mobs,   using my AE and using ma trusty shotgun (blunderbuss) or firebomb grenade to burn them down..

I find this to be extremely efficient and I'm grinding through the PVE sections much faster than my Warrior-Priest ever did..

OK, so on to Survival..

Engineers suffer a lack of armor and generally low HP's,    but its not all doom-n-gloom!      We have an amazing root skill..   "Barb-wire"..    Its instant and its saved my life more times than I can remember!      Its basically the same as that annoying Purple-thing that Magus do to us...     So you can appreciate how annoying it is!

We also get an early knockback,    and I'm really enjoying my golf games in TA at the moment!     

There are a few nifty-tricks down our sleeves too,    Landmine has a knockdown,  Concussion grenade has a decent knockback/DD,  we can even Self-destruct our turrets,  knocking down players for 5 seconds..    which is very powerful!

So to summarise..

I listed 10 AE abilities above,   that is a HELL of a lot of dmg!

While our single-target DPS is very poor (as grenadier at least),   we can put a LOT of pressure on enemy healers from the constant AE damage..

I don't suggest anyone starts an Engineer if you want solo kills,    I think its next to impossible on an Engineer..

Neither should you start if you want large numbers..     

I see 30-100 damage all the time, but in the 100's... and that really adds up...     I believe that Engineers are very close to BW/Sorc in terms of overall damage capability..      with their utility on board..     They really should not be ignored!!

Note:   In the same way a WoW Warlock would Dot someone up before dying,  many a time I've died in RvR only to run back seeing the damage still flowing from those DoTs...   

So come join in,   I can guarantee that you'll enjoy this class

Envicta.

[Rubino]

Very cool write-up.
Sounds like I've found my next alt!

[Warcold]

And I'll have to give my lvl 8 Eng another go... 

[Axenar]

I'm going down the tinkerer tree myself and enjoying it so far, the Instant Build turret ability is a godsend when you get jumped and also for the more mobile scenarios when you can't just sit in place. Later it gets a heal power with an AOE which could be handy as an extra bonus. I'll see how it plays out, can always respec if I dont like the end result.

[Rubino]

Created an Engineer last night and loving every min of it.
T2 is a little odd - but I think it's just that I'm not used to it - still working out the best tactics for placing turrets.

[Envicta]

In MT (Tier-2) my advice is to take advantage of the fact you can throw Acid-grenades on the move..

Just do this non-stop to everyone,  it really does add up..

Also use "Incendiary shot" on a nice squishy target as soon as it comes off cooldown!

Turrets wise,    at the beginning of MT,  I place the turret opposite the bauble spawn point (near the broken bridge)

After that you need to be slightly suicidal to place it in a forward-position,  before retreating back..

My only other tip is the 100% damage morale ability affects ALL damage, both existing and new for those 7 seconds..     Therefore you're better off throwing your acid-grenades,   then using the morale ability..     I generally then SPAM Blasterbuss constantly until the effect runs out..

Lots of fun, Lots of damage

[Rubino]

The Blasterbus is a super way to aid a retreat - wiped out a few destro that were near death that way - great for casters who follow the destro tank.
It's another slightly suicidal way to go - rush in and take out low HP support for destro tanks.

[Rubino]

I've found that the [spell]1522[/spell] is a very handy tool against casters: Pull back, pick your caster (pref in a group of them), rush forward lobbing acid and lob the flashbang.  You can usually get away - they've already locked you (you're running towards them) - you disrupt - they're stuck in cooldown!

Edit: Just found a decent writeup of EQ by Tier on WarHammer Alliance: http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167276

[Goatboy]

I found the engineer to be quite static up to level 10...
Spending more time on my IB atm... I rather like the indestructable nature of the little guy.