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[OscuraShiva]

I've just finished ME1 with the engineer and i would like to complete (again) the second chapter with the same class.
I finished one time insanity in ME2 with the infiltrator but i suppose it will be harder with this class and so i need some tips from those with more experience than me wih it.

Heavy Overload    4

Heavy Incinerate   4

Drone Damage/Explosion?   4
(I'm not sure about what to choose here, also because after a year on ME3 multiplayer, the drone has become somewhat useless to me. Yes, it may lure away some enemy for a moment but i'm not expecting it to survive enough to deal some good damage, especially on insanity)

Cryo Blast Radius   4
(good power in ME3. hopefully it will be the same here)

IA Hacking   1
(great power in ME1 but geth are no more the most common enemy now and so 1 should be enough, if not too much)

Tech Mastery with Damage Evolution   4

(Got all the bonus power avaible but no more points to use. Maybe Dominate 1 instead of IA Hacking 1 ?)



Barriers are the matter with this class but from what i remember of my experience on insanity with the infiltrator they're quite rare outside of the collector missions which would suggest me to do a specific party just for those:

Jack with Warp Squad Ammo seems fine to me
Third member? Miranda? ( i remember she dies often on insanity)

And a party for all the other missions:

Garrus with Armor Piercing Squad Ammo
Third member?



And the last thing, the weapon choice when the time comes. Assault Rifle vs Shotgun seems the way.
Considering the Cryo Blast, i would go a bit more for the Shotgun but again, i would like to listen opinions.

So:  1) Powers
        2) Party for collectors
        3) Party for all the others missions
        4) Weapon choice

[Simbacca]

For an ME2 Insanity Engineer, I like this no-respec needed build:

Balanced
4 Area Overload
4 Incineration Blast
4 Attack Drone
2 Cryo Blast
3 AI Hacking
4 Demolisher
1 Neural Shock

AI Hacking and Neural Shock both last enough to continually keep their respective enemy types controlled when needed, Cryo Blast is better than Neural Shock for the occasional high-health organics (like Krogan) that would die faster from it's damage boosting properties, Area Overload and Incineration Blast are great for stripping clusters of enemies' shields and armor respectively, and Attack Drone is the awesome Attack Drone.

If you don't mind respec'ing for specific enemy groups each mission (though the Balanced build is still best for mixed groups of organics and mechs), then these are the two to switch between.

Anti-Organic Foes
4 Area Overload
4 Incineration Blast
4 Attack Drone
1 Cryo Blast
0 AI Hacking
4 Demolisher
4 Neural Shockwave

Anti-Synthetic Bots
1 Overload
0 Incinerate
4 Explosive Drone
4 Full Cryo Blast
4 Improved AI Hacking
4 Demolisher
4 Area Drain

For Engineer squadmates, I like having one of them always being Grunt/Jacob or Zaaed for their crowd controlling Squad Ammo (panic organics or stunning synthetics).

For the other squadmate, someone that will compliment your abilities versus the type of foe you'll be facing. Mordin (with Full Cryo Blast, full passive, and Heavy Incinerate) is a great compliment to an Engineer player. Shepard can strip Shields or Armor of a group of enemies, and Mordin can immediately follow-up with an insta-cast, quick-cooling, Full Cryo Blast to freeze them all. When facing Collectors, I admit I still bring Mordin in this slot because his rapid Cryo Blasts make quick work of Husks and utilize focused team gunfire for Barriers, but you could instead use Samara with Reave or Thane with Warp if you really desire having specific anti-Barrier powers (who also have Throw for Husks). And of course there's always Kasumi, who's Improved Flashbang is a beast against most any enemy group, not to mentioned it's bugged neutering of Harbinger.

As far as Shepard weapon choice, depends on your preference between Assualt Rifles and Shotguns.  Regarding Shotguns, I really liked the Scimitar.  It's rapid-fire, pellet shot, and clip-size is great for appling the crowd controlling affects of Squad Incendiary or Squad Disruptor ammos.  Of course the same could be said for the AR's Mattock, though it can keep you at a safer range if you so desire.  There just so much crowd controlling going on when running this class (between all the powers, the instant distracting Combat Drone, AND the appropriate crowd controlling Squad Ammo type) you can make either weapon work.

And of course there's always the Geth Plasma Shotgun if you want the uber-weapon.  Works at both mid and close range and can strip defenses in one charged shot (shields and barriers).  At the time of it's release it felt like a bit of cheat weapon (which is why I ran the Scimitar, i like a challange) since it has both the strengths of the AR and Shotgun weapon classes combined; there's no doubting it's power. 

Modifié par Simbacca, 21 juin 2013 - 07:22 .

[RedCaesar97]

Simbacca laid it out very well. Follow his advice.

As for the Combat Drone, if you are used to the ME3 Crappy Drone, prepare to be amazed at the ME2 Awesome Drone.

The Combat Drone in ME2 is not a damage dealer, but it is a fantastic crowd-control power, with the ability to lock down a single target very reliably. Because of how the ME enemy A.I. works, the enemy you spawn it on will focus on the drone almost immediately, taking one enemy out of the fight very quickly.

Recommend using the Attack Drone evolution as I find Explosive Drone rather lackluster, since it rarely explodes.

[capn233]

Combat drone is much more useful in ME2 than it is in ME3. Likewise, I thought Cryo Blast was better in ME2 than ME3, although it got better after 1.04 where Cryo Explosions could be triggered on any frozen target. In ME2 though it is useful to instakill husks, and to deal with other melee creatures.

AI Hacking is also somewhat useful for a fair amount of the second game even though you aren't focused on Geth. Many of the missions against mercs will have mechs supporting them and it is nice to hack them, although obviously not completely necessary.

I like the balanced build that Simbacca posted above. It will work for the majority of the game. Neural Shock is one of the "1 point wonder" bonus powers and is a decent choice. It has a 3s cooldown which is about half the time of most of the other powers with the exception of Combat Drone (identical), and Cryo Blast (4.5s). I think that you can make a coherent argument that it overlaps somewhat with Incinerate and Cryo in that all of them CC organic enemies, although Incinerate will also damage the targets. Cryo causes enemies to take more damage, but enemies on the ground from NS will take more damage as well. NS will instakill husks as Cryo also does.

At any rate, there aren't a whole lot of better options bonus power wise, so 1pt NS might be worth taking and leaving at that rank for the remainder of the game.

If you go Energy Drain, you can somewhat replace Overload, except that you need 2 ranks to unlock Incinerate anyway. You can use the 2pt Overload on Pyro tanks if need be to detonate them, although Incinerate should do that as well. Anyway, I don't ever feel like I need to go to Area AI Hacking or Improved really. It would be nice against higher tier units, but I would rather have anti-armor available against them in the form of Incinerate.

Regarding anti-barrier work, you can of course use Overload, Incinerate, or Cryo Blast against barriers, although they aren't quite as good as Warp. However, your cooldown is fast enough on Cryo to make it worthwhile to cast as an anti-barrier power in a pinch.

Shotguns are probably better overall than assault rifles for any caster in ME2 since the default AR's aren't all that great, and have "jack of all trades" defense multipliers that don't really fill in for a deficit on the character. I tended to take the just for "role playing." Shotgun will give you a good close range weapon and allow you to go Locust for mid-long range on the SMG. If you don't have Kasumi's DLC, it is a harder choice between something like SR training with the Viper (good anti-defense and armor precision weapon), or Shotguns with any of the default. Shuriken vs Tempest is somewhat player's choice.

[brad2240]

My Engineers usually go with Area Overload, Area Incinerate, Attack Drone, Demolisher, and Armor Piercing Ammo as my bonus power. I like having my own ammo powers. I also play on Xbox with only 3 hotkey options, so this build fits well in that limitation.
Against Collectors I usually take Samara and either Miranda or Thane. Thane is better but Miranda is.. well, Miranda.

If I'm facing a lot of shielded enemies I go with Garrus and often Miranda again, although you could take Zaeed also.

Against Bloodpack enemies I bring Mordin and whoever I feel like at the moment. Between Engineer Shep and Mordin, the third squadmate is just there for show anyway.

[kombra]

Simbacca wrote...
Cryo Blast is better than Neural Shock for the occasional high-health organics (like Krogan) that would die faster from it's damage boosting properties

Having been killed by semi-frozen Krogan a few times, I disagree with that.

In terms of damage boost, both are actually pretty much the same according to my testing. The damage boost only sets in after after a couple of seconds, when enemies are completely frozen or when shocked enemies fall to the ground.

[Simbacca]

kombra wrote...

Simbacca wrote...

Cryo Blast is better than Neural Shock for the occasional high-health organics (like Krogan) that would die faster from it's damage boosting properties

Having been killed by semi-frozen Krogan a few times, I disagree with that.

In terms of damage boost, both are actually pretty much the same according to my testing. The damage boost only sets in after after a couple of seconds, when enemies are completely frozen or when shocked enemies fall to the ground.

That does happen, the player still needs to get out of the way of Krogan that haven't frozen solid yet.

I believe I sometimes went N.S. -> Cryo Blast on Krogan, if they weren't yet dead by the time that started to get up from the shock.

[capn233]

kombra wrote...

In terms of damage boost, both are actually pretty much the same according to my testing. The damage boost only sets in after after a couple of seconds, when enemies are completely frozen or when shocked enemies fall to the ground.

Basically.

The damage bonus is because ragdolled enemies take double damage, so if you NS them and they are laying on the ground then they are ragdolled and get that bonus.  Similarly, frozen enemies also take double damage, but of course they have to be completely frozen.

Both effects will instakill unprotected husks.

[Alfonsedode]

Simbacca laid it out very well. Follow his advice.

As for the Combat Drone, if you are used to the ME3 Crappy Drone, prepare to be amazed at the ME2 Awesome Drone.

The Combat Drone in ME2 is not a damage dealer, but it is a fantastic crowd-control power, with the ability to lock down a single target very reliably. Because of how the ME enemy A.I. works, the enemy you spawn it on will focus on the drone almost immediately, taking one enemy out of the fight very quickly.

Recommend using the Attack Drone evolution as I find Explosive Drone rather lackluster, since it rarely explodes.

SO explosive drone is confirmed to be almost useless as it doesnt get enemies attention in most case ?

[Vazgen]

SO explosive drone is confirmed to be almost useless as it doesnt get enemies attention in most case ?

Here is the comparison:

 

Personally, I like Explosive Drone more, simply because it has the potential to stagger multiple enemies on destruction.

[Dr. Rush]

Just to give you a little feedback, I played engineer in ME2 on insanity difficulty and I personally think it is the most powerful class in the game. The reason for this is the combat drone, and effectively having the ability to distract and control enemy AI.

 

You want to use explosive combat drone, so you can get the most bang for your buck, because your drones will be exploding very frequently and you will be spawning and spamming more drones as fast as possible. 

 

Other than drone spam, playing an engineer is pretty easy. You just use overload for shields and incinerate for armor. 

 

Lastly, if you have the bonus powers, I highly recommend using stasis as your bonus power. Why? Because stasis, along side combat drone, is one of the best crowd control skills in the game. If you have both drone and stasis, you can control every single fight in the game, even the most difficult fights  become very easy with these skills.

 

If you can, I also recommend an assault rifle, as using a pistol with this build is okay, but not nearly as satisfying as a rifle.

 

As for your party, it pretty much boils down to Grunt and whoever else you want to bring. Truthfully, everyone but Grunt usually drops dead before the fight is over on insanity difficulty, so for most fights, it will just be you and Grunt. 

 

Good luck and have fun!

[Alfonsedode]

Here is the comparison:

 
Personally, I like Explosive Drone more, simply because it has the potential to stagger multiple enemies on destruction.

I agree with gatsby, it s not dying enough, the explosive one.
I d like to try a 3 drone team now

[capn233]

The two evolutions of drone have different roles, so which one you pick should depend on what you want from it.

 

Attack drone is decent for locking down elites for a little while.  Like the Eclipse Vanguard in that vid.  That is the best use for it, as locking down regular foot soldiers isn't usually something that is a high priority, at least not in my opinion, since you can probably instastrip their defense and CC with a power like Cryo Blast or Neural Shock, Pull on a squadmate, whatever.

 

Explosive drone is the opposite, it is for group stagger on multiple targets.  I try to drop it on top of groups of mooks (3 or so) and hopefully they focus it down and stagger themselves.  Dropping it near a rocket launcher enemy is also good.  It isn't so great at locking down the single elite type soldiers, but it is somewhat serviceable in this role.  I tend to prefer this evolution, but really it comes down to what build and style of engineer you are playing, and potentially what stage of the game.

[Alfonsedode]

dble post

[Alfonsedode]

Explosive drone is the opposite, it is for group stagger on multiple targets.  I try to drop it on top of groups of mooks (3 or so) and hopefully they focus it down and stagger themselves.  Dropping it near a rocket launcher enemy is also good.  It isn't so great at locking down the single elite type soldiers, but it is somewhat serviceable in this role.  I tend to prefer this evolution, but really it comes down to what build and style of engineer you are playing, and potentially what stage of the game.

I only used it on one mission and only witnessed the bug, so thought enemies might ignore the explosive drone altogether.

I might redo a engi platrough when me4 comes out as it seems quite fun in me 2 and 3. ME1 disabling is quite boring though.

[Alfonsedode]

As for your party, it pretty much boils down to Grunt and whoever else you want to bring. Truthfully, everyone but Grunt usually drops dead before the fight is over on insanity difficulty, so for most fights, it will just be you and Grunt. 
 
Good luck and have fun!

My squadmate dont dye much sor by streaks when i forgot to place them. But i dont take grunt a lot, as his power are not very usefull and he deals far less damage than the mercenary.

[a_mouse]

The longer I've played this game, the more I've come to favor control powers with short cool downs over direct damage and defense stripping powers (for Shep) on any class. By pairing Shep with squadmates having mission-appropriate AOE stripping powers you can combo ordinary mooks, and handle the elites by double (or triple) teaming them.  Thus with Engineer I usually prioritize Attack Drone, Tech Mastery, 1 point Cryo, and a 1-point wonder bonus (Slam, NS, or Stasis) before anything else.  (One exception is Thrall Engineer, where the goal is to use AI hacking and Dominate to control enemies with Thralls.  In this case I invest XPs earlier into AII hacking or Dominate, depending on mission).

 

After this, I usually invest 3 points each in Overload and Incinerate since they are situationally useful (and a good place to store the XP's until respeccing to Full Cryo Blast).  Toward the end I will put remaining XPs in Incinerate or a bonus power, depending on what I'm doing.  I've never found overload to be that important since I can always take up to two squadmates that provide that function.