How i play engi (please critique)

Discussion in 'Engineer' started by NIL0S, Nov 28, 2012.

  1. NIL0S

    I pretty much suck at infantry, haven't much skill or luck with the aim and twitch type of combat, so i stick to explosives and vehicles, mostly ground because i find air overcrowded and too tricky (props for the flying physics though). I usually run solo or duo with a friend in a sundy and function as AMS/ammo truck, whenever there is entrenched fights i keep the heavies and maxes supplied with ammo and try to give covering fire with my basilisk turrets (wonder what i should upgrade them to, only thing ever bothering me are MBTs and heavies, really, anything else i can escape by redeploying, out-repairing or simply destroying), i do repair friendly vehicles if i'm not under heavy fire myself and they aren't too stubborn at trying to run away or running me over.

    I do have a few certs spent in the prowler (picked TR because of friend) and do OK at playing the artillery/flanking role during base sieges, whenever my sundy is down, that is. I occasionally jump into and man the turrets of gals/libs, with mixed success. When defending i'm running around—grease monkey style—and try to keep generators up in between manning the AT/AA towers. If i'm forced into CQC situations i just forgo the MANA turret entirely, haul leg like no tomorrow, and switch to a MAX, i rather use the deployable turret only for cover or as a door obstacle since the one thing i find it good at is drawing aggro...

    Using grenades or staying out of sight and then ambushing are pretty much the only tactics that get me reliable kills as an infantry. I'm looking forward to the sticky grenades/mines/C4 certs as i believe they will give me some more options when on foot.

    What's your experience as an engi? Any advice on how to improve my playstile?
  2. SirBurning

    Looks about right, for vehicle play, if you own a tank/plane/sundy, going engineer is the most solid choice. I definately recommend upgrading your repairtool to level 4-5, since it really helps.

    Also , get Mines, 2 of them blow up a sundy.They presist trew, death, class change. I sometimes get kills of mines I placed at a base we owned an hour ago.

    Also a Tip: If you equip your ACE Tool (MANA turret one) and press B, it will switch modes to a Ammo box. This box is better than the default utility one. So it allows you to give out ammo AND use mine :)
    • Up x 1
  3. NIL0S

    Awesome, thanks for the feedback, the press B for ammo box will be useful! Upgrading the rep tool as much i can.
    Can't wait for the mines, though isn't the C4 better at AMS demolition?
  4. SirBurning

    Not if you ask me. Mines deploy faster than C4. You drop them ,and they will explode after a short delay, regardless if you get shot or such. So , with C4 you have to run in , plant and detonate. While with mines, as soon as you drop them, they will do their job. The sundy will die regardless of what happens to you. No way of stopping those mines once you dropped them :)
    Also, Mines are usefull in more situations than c4 if you ask me.
    C4 is more Light Assaults thing.
    • Up x 1
  5. Bubblewrap2

    Only reason I don't touch C4 on Engie is that it has been reported to sometimes bug so that it does little to no damage even with perfect placement.

    Also, by design C4 is more suited to Light Assault who has higher survivability for infiltration and escape due to their jetpacks giving them routes and assault advantage not available to other players. As, LA, you can easily C4 something, including MAXes, and escape to continue a run without anyone ever seeing you. That is virtually impossible as Engie.

    Engie is more of a strategic (rather than tactical) explosives expert or a suicide bomber.
    • Up x 1
  6. NIL0S

    Suicide bomber sounds like me, haha. I see the point of mines now, kind of throw and forget. Also i tried out the second ammo pack, you can cover much more troops with supplies this way, it's great!
    • Up x 1
  7. Dhart

    I went with Heavy and Engineer.

    Explosives- I just got into AV and finished the BB line... they are a lot of fun and as long as you don't try to deploy more than you can carry (which is to say you can resupply but not deploy them until they explode or they'll de-spawn). There's plenty of threads already on these... I suggest you read them. Bottom line- location is everything.

    Weapon kills... a lot of it is skill, but a fraction of that is the enhancements. If you've ever fought at night... you know right off that without the Night-scope it's almost hopeless as reaction times are bad (esp when you are trying to avoid greifing), but that other stuff can make a big difference. I'm fairly bad myself... but I figure there's plenty other stuff to spend my points on and in another 6-8 weeks... it'll be clear which weapon or two are best overall... and then I can improve it without feeling that I've wasted the certs.

    With Heavy- I used SC to buy the Hawk AA rocket launcher. It has no improvement certs, but has been a great deal of fun for protecting Sunders and generally causing mayhem in the skies. It won't one shot anything bigger than a Mosquito; but I get plenty of assist points and often pilot's acrobatics avoiding the missile lock get them killed. Like an Engineer- it's a great support role and I don't have to waste any certs on the class itself. Ammo is a pain... (see Ammo packs below). I've used them to assist kill tanks/turrets as well. No lock, but then most tanks don't fire and move at the same time... not like aircraft.

    Vehicles... not so much. A little in Sunders- AMS and Tank are the most obvious upgrades; got Stealth but it's hard to say that wasn't wasted... Engineer is a good bet being able to repair any damage.The rest can wait.

    Rank 4 nano repair will almost heal anything from scratch with 2 full charges- that's turrets in bases.... Still need that 3rd 1s push to finish though. When the tooltip says faster... it just means more bars without a cooldown... it's not necessarily 'faster'. It should read same as Mana turret, etc.

    Longer lasting ammo packs are great... Rank 3 atm... 3 min and your 'aoe' coverage goes to 4m. Lots of Engineers toss them during big battles... but few improve them... so they last 1-2 min and folks have to stand right on it to get ammo. Makes a huge difference in combat if improved. I'm guessing that a Rank 7 ammo pack would cover the entire warp gate room...if you are really desperate for points. Don't have to stick them in the doorway... but in the middle of the room and everyone who shows up will get resupplied by you.

    Suit- I went with Nano at first... but at the advice of my peers...the Flak armor is best, especially as more engineers are playing with BB, etc... being able to survive a blast will be more important. Even your own bombs/mines can kill you if you are too close when they detonate.
    • Up x 1
  8. Silent255

    I suicide bomb with mines SO much. It's a hell of a lotta fun and you can often pull off a hefty amount of kills if you plop the mine in the middle of a medic-jerk or a crowd in general. I'll gladly high tail it, whether it be on foot, atv, lightning, or MBT, to a sundy spawn, plop 2 mines, and wipe it off the map. You can have a lot of fun with mines when the situation is right.
    • Up x 1
  9. Thudruckus

    I play eng mostly on ground as I fly the rest of the time.

    Using the tools you have to maximize yourself makes you a 10x better engi. People always complain about the turret "oh they just headshot you it sucks!". Last night I dropped min on top of some walkway by a bio dome entrance pad and simply used it as SHIELD and kept healing it. Within 2 minutes I had an army of guys behind my assaulting from it. They could easily duck back behind it and the walkway and be nearly safe.

    It finally took multiple HAs bombing it with rockets for it to go down.

    USE YOUR TOOLS EVEN FOR THINGS THEY'RE NOT MEANT FOR!
    • Up x 1
  10. NIL0S

    Going to skip C4 for mines :) I found Flak armor to be pretty invaluable myself when repairing tanks and being under heavy barrage, or when the tank you're repairing ultimately bites it and you want to survive the blast. The turret in biolabs is the only instance where i got more than 1 kill (or any at all) with it before getting shot myself, and yes, it's nifty as a tactical shield... but only in situations where you KNOW the enemy is going to show from the front.
  11. Profian

    Could i just double check what mines should i pick up claymores or tanks mines or both lol.
    But only got enough points for one at the moment.
    • Up x 1
  12. Goats

    It depends what you want. I've had a lot of success using anti-infantry mines, particularly in indoor base defenses. They're really helpful for guarding those shield generators and cap points. However, I've also heard of people having a lot of success (and fun) with tank mines, using them either to defend roads where tanks pass through, or to turn them into suicide bombers, driving up to an enemy Sundy and throwing them down, destroying it and getting a ton of kills. I've even heard of people using them to take out large groups of infanty by throwing the mines where they know the enemies will go, then shooting them when the enemies pass by.

    Honestly, from what I've heard, tank mines are the better choice, although I like the anti infantry ones myself. You should definitely get those too, but AT ones are probably best to go with first.
    • Up x 1
  13. Cookie Fingers

    I play a CQB engineer. No tanks. No Aircraft. *I die a lot*

    Shotguns, mines and C4. And Melee, an unbelievable amount of melee. I stopped fast switching to pistol and just charge right into groups swinging until I die. Friendly fire often does more damage than I do, and every once in a while, some heavy hitting "f" for shield accidentally hits "g" instead. Even without getting a bomb out, that can be enough time to completely disrupt a camped position to be rushed by my teammates.

    I repair what and where I can, but my most successful role to date has been to crack open well-camped rooms, and in the end my k/d is about even on those. Which is something, because I die like, oh, 7 times before I finally get a bomb dropped. *Most of the time*, C4 persists through death, and I can detonate it immediately after respawn, provided I'm still in the same area. I haven't certed the betty's yet, and look forward to it soon.

    For added fun, stick a C4 on your own Flash and just drive the @$#@$ through a door. Sometimes I even live through the getaway. Mostly though, glorious death followed by channel trolling ;)
    • Up x 1
  14. Cookie Fingers

    And as far as the infantry mines go, I'd never even seen one, and then today, suddenly they're killing me all over the freaking place.
    • Up x 1
  15. Malakin

    Something that no one has mentioned is killing maxes with tank mines. If I have mines on me and I run into a max, and live for more than a few seconds in cqb, I'll toss my mines next to him and toss a grenade as i run away. The grenade usually sets off both mines,

    Now if only I could throw them at planes :)
    • Up x 1
  16. NIL0S

    Oh my, putting C4 on flash and running it into things... sounds crazy fun, have to test this, hope can trial the C4!

    I was sad they took grenade and rocket launchers away but it seems you can still go boom plenty :D