Engineer

An explosion is the ultimate form of mechanical advantage, so its no big surprise that the skills of the Dwarf Engineer extend well along these lines. From guns to grenades, he is a deadly ranged combatant who will pelt you with lead from afar and blast you to bits as you close in. He excels when fighting multiple opponents, as many of his explosive attacks are capable of devastating enemies who pack too closely together. The Engineer offers an outstanding blend of flexible firepower which makes him a truly deadly and clever combatant.

Engineer Specialty

The only thing more deadly than a simple bomb is a complicated one, or at least thats the way an Engineer sees things. Using nothing more than the odds and ends they have at hand, Engineers can create a broad variety of useful objects with various purposes and functions. Some of them are even safe enough to give to others. From grenades of various types to mechanical weapon upgrades, the engineer and his allies can use these devices to significantly enhance or supplement their own combat power.

Playing as an Engineer

As an Engineer, the heart of your job is to rain destruction on the heads of your enemies. Like other ranged combatants, you prefer to avoid the frontline. However, unlike most other ranged classes, you reach the peak of your power at a relatively short range. You must maneuver wisely, positioning yourself so that you can strike at your target without exposing yourself to their attacks. You are a capable melee fighter, and you can strike at extended range, but your best attacks – grenades, blunderbusses, artillery bombardment, and more – require a closer position.

Fighting against an Engineer

Perhaps the best way to deal with an Engineer is to fight him from afar. If you can effectively out damage him at long range he will be at a serious disadvantage. If you must get in close, be prepared to kill him quickly. Unlike most other ranged attackers, the Engineer loses little in terms of effectiveness in close quarters. He is certainly more vulnerable than a career designed to engage in melee, but this vulnerability does not make him easy meat.

Career Masteries

The Dwarfs first discovered the secrets of black powder, and no one can rival them when it comes to putting it to good use. Armed with guns, grenades, and gadgets, the Engineers often prepare traps and ambushes throughout the battlefield before the fight begins, and then quickly dispatch any surviving enemies from a safe distance.

Crossbows were good and fine, but nowadays, a gun is better - and if a gun is good, then an automated self-aiming gyro-mounted gun turret with a cyclic grenade feeder and napalm cannister is even better yet! An Engineer has gadgets and gizmos to suit any situation, and is virtually an entire battle line on his own.

Path Of The Rifleman

This path focuses on long-range attacks, and taking your time with carefully aimed precision shots. A master of this path prefers to stand back away from the hectic front lines of battle, and dispatch his enemies quickly and cleanly from behind defensive cover.

Path of The Grenadier

This mastery is primarily focused on grenades and bombs, powerful explosives which may be quickly tossed into the middle of a fray to wreak havoc on enemies. While their effective range may be shorter than a gun's - after all, Dwarf arms aren't exactly build to throw for distance - grenades make up for this through sheer stopping power and swift arming times.

Path of The Tinkerer

A specialist in this path is concerned mainly with his deployable contructs, preferring to fight from near the safety of his turrets while he lays out his foes with swings of his heavy steel wrench. Master tinkerers have also been known to use additional deployable devices above and beyond turrets as well, and many are the Engineers who've been banned for life from a blacksmith's forge after trying to test and improve the heat thresholds of land mines.

Class Changes

• Napalm Grenade radius extended to meet its visual effects (link)

• Morale 2 ability Unshakeable Focus removed (link)

• Phosphorous Shells can now be cast on the move, is the 13pt ability in Rifleman tree, has its duration reduced to 10s, has its damage increased, and has its cooldown reduced to 10s (from 20s) (link)

• Snipe is the 9pt ability in the Rifleman tree (link)

• Land Mine staggers for 5s (up from 3s)

• The tactic Extra Powder now extends the radius of Phosphorous Shells by 50% (bringing it from 20ft base to 30ft with the tactic) (link)

• The Gun Turret ability Machine Gun hits every second rather than every half second. Damage is doubled.

• Turrets grant up to 8 Improvised Upgrades stacks every 2s when within 30ft of your turret. Damage is increased by 5% per stack for a max of 40% damage. 4 stacks of Improvised Upgrades are lost when a turret is destroyed for any reason. All stacks of Improvised Upgrades are lost when a turret of a different type than the last is constructed.
  • Gun Turret
    • Improvised Upgrades improves your range, and that of your turret, by 5% per stack up to 5 stacks, to a max of 25% extra range
  • Bombardment Turret
    • Improvised Upgrades will stack when you are within 40 feet of your turret (up from 30ft), and while between 41 to 80 feet of your turret, you will neither gain nor lose Improvised Upgrades stacks
    • Turret range is improved by 5% per stack to a max of 40%
    • Provided you have at least one Improvised Upgrades stack, you can use Path of the Grenadier skills while moving
    • Each stack shortens the duration and tick interval of Path of the Grenadier and Path of the Tinkerer DoTs by approximately 4% per stack to a maximum of 35%
  • Flame Turret
    • Improvised Upgrades will improve your change to Dodge and Disrupt by 4% per stack to a max of 32%, and also increases your turret's chance to Dodge and Disrupt by 8% per stack to a maximum of 64%
    • Provided you have at least one Improvised Upgrades stack, you can use Path of the Grenadier skills while moving
    • Stacks increase the radius of any of your AoE abilities on skills by 6.25% per stack to a max of 50%, increase your aoe cap by 2 per stack, but reduce your cast range by 5% per stack to a minimum of 60%

Builds

• Tier 1: Grab some ale for this beginner guide to playing the versatile Engineer!
  • You'll get your Gun Turret first. It's pretty much Gun Blast spam from range, then be sure to drop Acid Bomb on a group and follow it up with Friction Burn to really spread the dots around. Acid Bomb is a very good Corp debuff, and Friction Burn deals a good amount of damage over time. Once you get Flame Turret at 6 and Bombardment Turret at 8, you can start being more mobile with your Grenadier abilities. At 11, be sure to start donning your Flak Jacket and your racial tactic, Stoutness of Stone. At 15, you can either throw points in Grenadier for a mobile Corp build or Rifleman for a stationary sniper build. We've chosen the Rifleman path here since you'll normally be fighting around BOs in T1. Be sure to pop Incendiary Rounds on the target you're focusing and Flashbang Grenade healers as they try to rez. Blunderbuss Blast will also be a good aoe ability as you level.
• Mid Tier - Rifleman: Standard Sniper build for mid tier, focused on stationary assassination of individual targets.
  • Generally, the most efficient first tactic is probably Extra Powder from the middle tree, but figure out the playstyle you like best and continue dumping points into that specific tree as you level up. At 19, pick up the Masterful Aim tactic and at 20, you can either grab Extra Powder (if you're Grenadier) or keep Stoutness of Stone. Stopping Power from left tree isn't that great when you have Concussive Grenade and Extra Ammo is hard to make great use of if you're constantly moving. Swap your m1 for Concealment as that will be your defensive m1 you'll use going into t4, and pick up Focused Mind since that's the only m2. Lightning Rod is a great 5pt ability if you're going the Tinkerer build, as well as Keg at 9pt. You can throw Trench Fighting into this build for a nice damage increase. Alternatively, you can forego Trench Fighting and Keg to grab Electromagnet for warband fighting. For your third tactic, Pierce Defenses is highly viable. If you're going for the aoe heavy Grenadier build, be sure to take advantage of Extra Powder and Napalm Grenade. Alternatively, skip Extra Powder and grab Pierce Defenses.
• T4 - Kegsniper: Standard Sniper build for tier 4.
  • Please review the spec here
• T4 - Armor Grenadier: Utility damage build for warband play.
  • Please review the spec here
• T4 - Armor Tinkerer: Frontline utility spec for warband.
  • Please review the spec here

Credit: Lesti, Thorbolt