25 réponses à ce sujet

[capn233]

-This was in the build forum when it existed, but apparently was migrated into the Story forum when they were all merged.

 

Combat Engineer

 

I don't typically write lengthy diatribes, so the idea here was simply an Engineer with a combat power for the bonus.  I selected AP Ammo.  Inferno Grenades are also excellent, as is Fortification.  The other goal was to try and do decent weapon damage and not be too much of a "caster."  Not sure if I met the latter objective, maybe you can tell me.  The other powers I chose to focus on are Overload, Incinerate and Drone.

 

This also can serve as a surrogate guide and walkthrough to the game if need be.  There is commentary (good or bad thing depending on your perspective ).

 

As I say in Prologue and allude to on Mars, I thought about doing a NG+ for this run, but instead did an ME2 Import that was set to NG+ (in case I wanted to go to X on guns), and with level set back to 1 (to show build progression).  Anyone who was on the forums way back when will remember discussions about what may have been more challenging, but ever since DLC allowed you to hit 60 relatively easily starting from 1 this is how I like to play the game.

 

Prologue

 

Mars

 

Palaven

 

N7 Cerberus Lab

 

Eden Prime

 

Grissom Academy

 

Sur'Kesh

 

N7 Cerberus Attack

 

The Rachni

 

N7 Cerberus Abductions

 

Tuchanka

 

Citadel Coup

 

Leviathan I: TGES Mineral Works

Leviathan II: Namkali Dig Site

Leviathan III: 2181 Despoina

 

N7 Cerberus Fighter Base

 

Geth Dreadnought

 

Rescue Koris

 

N7 Fuel Reactors

 

Rannoch

 

Citadel I: Ambush

Citadel II: Council Archives

Citadel III: Normandy Dry Dock

 

Turian Platoon

 

Tuchanka Bomb

 

Ardat-Yakshi Monastery

 

Ex-Cerberus Scientists

 

Thessia

 

Horizon

 

N7 Communications Hub

 

Omega I: Invasion

Omega II: Talon Territory

Omega III: The Mines

Omega IV: Assault of Afterlife

 

Armax I: Minor Missions (aka Fan Challenges)

Armax II: Unusual Scores

Armax III: Mirror Match

Armax IV: Bonus Mirror Match

Armax V: Misc. ME2 Squadmate Discussion

 

Cronos Station

 

Earth I: Hades Cannon

Earth II: No Man's Land and Thanix Missiles

 

I'll add on to them as they are put on youtube.

[Locutus_of_BORG]

I just completed an Engineer run with the same idea; weapon-based damage over spell-based damage. I imported my ME2 SG Eng and was hoping to gear him for CQC, but ended up with a Harrier and an Eagle for midrange fighting, as I didn't enable NG+. But I ran Fortification with full defense evolutions so I could still rambo through most missions pretty easily.

 

When I pick this character up again, I'll see if level X shotguns suit him better. I originally wanted to run a Piranha or Raider, but at lvl.5 they didn't seem quite as strong for this character as the Harrier.

[capn233]

I think one of the big problems with the shotguns if you aren't in a real NG+ is you can't get high levels of Smart Choke until you are nearly 2/3 of the way through the game, and that makes the shotguns seem a lot weaker than in MP where nearly everyone already has SC V.  Raider and Piranha are special cases, too, since both have poor accuracy.

 

Claymore sort of works around this with a favorable pattern where at low accuracy it still lands a nice number of pellets in directly at point of aim (X pattern).  And the high damage per shot helps.

 

Anyway, that was part of why I ran the Crusader a lot through the mid game, although I tried to use a variety of guns.  Also wanted something with innate penetration, since AP Ammo (power) has the 50% damage penalty for cover penetration in SP.  And it was sort of a Saber substitute.

 

Fortification is definitely a good choice for this guy, but my last two characters had Fortification (Soldier, Sentinel), so I wanted to go with something else.  It is probably one of the best universal bonus powers in the game now.

[Locutus_of_BORG]

Yeah, I think Smart Choke can be a huge factor for this build in a non-NG+ run. At the start, it was annoying having to close to point-blank to deal damage with SGs. Since I didn't have a full complement of CC, I would get pinned down in cover and not be able to do clean kills. As such, Fortification felt a bit wasted, as I had to take cover anyways.

[Frostmourne86]

Does AP Ammo really have a penalty, considering that it has the penetration factor?

[capn233]

AP Ammo has a 50% damage penalty when shooting through cover in SP.  The variable is in coalesced if you want to look there for yourself.

 

"piercingdamage" under biogame > "sfxgamecontent.sfxpowercustomaction_armorpiercingammo"

[Ribosome]

Coincidentally, I did an engineer ME2 playthrough almost exactly like this a few weeks ago. Used Vindicator and AP ammo for a little over half the game, tried out a bunch of different squad combinations but liked Miranda and Jack more than any of them for the warp bombs and Jack's great ammo power (which, once leveled up, proved better than my own thus I dropped it to allow myself to get hacking).

 

Thank you for the videos! I'll definitely watch them for inspiration when I eventually import this character with the same playstyle in mind. I completely lack the desire to touch the game for the time being.

[capn233]

Yeah AP Ammo isn't too bad for an Engineer in ME2 either.

[Locutus_of_BORG]

AP Ammo provides a much welcome damage boost to the Engineer's mediocre weapon bonus. My favorite powers on this class are Overload, Sabotage, Drone and Turret (I feel Incineration & Cryo too slow/unreliable) so I depend a lot on weapons to kill. I also prefer to keep my weapon load relatively light so I can keep spamming CC. Shooting through cover is especially useful in ME3, so AP Ammo is a good way to do it while increasing damage but avoiding the weight penalty of most HVB mods.

[capn233]

I have been slacking on mixing the sound and compressing these since I have been screwing around with linux distros on my old laptop.  Anyway, added two short ones.  Short in the amount of combat... I didn't edit out some of the talking.  Was curt with the staff at the Cerberus base though.

[capn233]

Still need to do Cronos and Earth... there will be Armax in between, which I already recorded a week or so ago.

[capn233]

I recorded Cronos and Earth over the weekend, and mixed the audio for all the Armax stuff this evening.  Will compress Armax tonight and put them up tomorrow most likely.  And then Cronos and the two parts of Earth will be up by the end of the week.

 

And that will be it for the Combat Engineer Guide, which I am sure has helped literally tens of people.

[RedCaesar97]

And that will be it for the Combat Engineer Guide, which I am sure has helped literally tens of people.

 

You give yourself too much credit. More like ones of people. 

 

(And to those who do not understand that this was a joke: This was a joke. I was not being mean. Go away.)

[capn233]

Laugh it up Red.

 

I put the first Armax one up.  It has the following:

 

Warmup

Geth + Medigel Challenge

Another one for tokens
Thermal Clip + Reaper Solo + Charity Reaper Challenges
Spin Zone Elite + Prothean Challenges
Cerberus Challenge

 

And it ended up being sort of long as a result.

[Rusted Cage]

Capn 233 your build videos, along with Red Caesar's "My Infiltrator thinks she's an Engineer" build, have inspired me to do a combat focussed engineer playthrough -  a sort of My "Engineer thinks she's a Soldier" style.

 

To that end, what are your thoughts on Marksman as a bonus power for a skill setup similar to your own? I've run a few tests on the M8 Avenger, taking the Headshot damage and Accuracy perks at ranks 4 and 5 but have to conclude that I may need a better gun. However, I want to stay true to the ME1 style assault rifles and hand guns in order to use this power so do you think fire rate would be a better choice of perk as it will increase dps?

[RedCaesar97]

@Rusted Cage

 

First, the Avenger is probably the worst gun in the game, although the Shuriken is pretty bad as well.

 

Second, Marksman has about a 7.8 second duration at rank 3, assuming no additional duration bonuses from Tech Mastery. Marksman also has a base 10-second cooldown I believe, so with +200% weapon weight, the cooldown will be about 3 seconds. So at a minimum, using Marksman will lock you out of using other powers for almost 11 seconds.

 

So, if you plan on using Marksman on the Engineer, you need to plan around not using any other powers for a minimum 11 seconds. So I am thinking:

 - Combat Drone and Sentry Turret for distraction

 - Sabotage for hacking turrets and Geth/Rampart mechs

 

You could maybe work in Cryo Blast for some additional crowd control.

You could possibly use Overload for the occasional shielded enemy (such as Marauders or Cerberus Centurians) or Phantoms.

Incinerate would be pointless.

 

The Engineer does not have any native ammo powers to make better use of weapons, so you would need to borrow one from the squad, namely Incendiary Ammo from James, or Disruptor Ammo from Ashley if she is alive. Probably not much point in AP Ammo from Garrus or Warp Ammo from Liara.

 

As for rank 4 Fire Rate versus Accuracy, I think it depends on what weapon/mods you are using. If I recall, I believe capn233 explained to me that Marksman plus the Shotgun accuracy mods will give you +100% accuracy unless you take all the accuracy bonuses in Marksman which you give over 100% accuracy which starts giving you negative accuracy again. Or something like that. Also, some weapons will not benefit from the fire rate bonuses -- such as the Predator, Mattock, or Raptor -- since you cannot fire fast enough to make use of the bonus.

 

You will probably have to play around with Marksman and different weapons to see what gives you the best results. NG+ (or a late-game save) might be the best option if you have an Engineer available for that so you can test it out with all the mods at rank IV or V.

[Rusted Cage]

Thank you Red Caesar. I started this build with a level 30 ME2 import, although I reset all powers prior to importing. This meant I could max out Marksman if I chose, although I only went to rank five. With +150% cooldown I haven't been too vulnerable, although it is a little weird using that power.

 

I was thinking along the same lines as you about ammo powers so focussed James on Incendiary Ammo with the squad mate bonus - I figured this would mean Incinerate was a good idea for my Engineer.

 

I like your thoughts on using the drones too. The bit of chaos they add could really support marksman, and the cooldowns on those aren't very long meaning more time spent using marksman.

 

As for the weapon mods, I guess I need to be careful not to focus on accuracy mods if I also choose the accuracy evolution - I don't want any waste here. I'm a  bit confused as to what +100% accuracy actually is; if it means that a is weapon is 100% accurate then that's simple, but if it means a weapon is 100% more accurate than its base value then how do we determine what its maximum accuracy % would be?

[RedCaesar97]

I'm a  bit confused as to what +100% accuracy actually is; if it means that a is weapon is 100% accurate then that's simple, but if it means a weapon is 100% more accurate than its base value then how do we determine what its maximum accuracy % would be?

 

Someone can correct me, but I believe accuracy refers to the bullet spread of the gun. For example, shotguns spread bullets in a pattern, and the Tempest, Eagle, and Revenant all shoot bullets that tend to hit a % off of center. So the accuracy will reduce that spread. If a weapon has no spread, then the accuracy modifier should not change anything. However, increasing the accuracy of most shotguns, assault rifles, and SMGs (and some other weapons like the Eagle or indra), will reduce the spread and the bullets will hit closer to the center.  

[Rusted Cage]

Thanks Caes. In that case, taking Rate of Fire maybe more advantageous than Accuracy if using innately accurate weapons, no? I did a Marksman Soldier playthrough a while back using the Argus in which I chose accuracy, so I think I'll give RoF a go and see how it goes.

[capn233]

Using Marksman would allow you to do a version of a pseudo-ME1 infiltrator via Engineer. 

 

Accuracy bonuses mainly affect aim-error variables for the weapon in question.  Essentially there are values for the base error per shot, and how much error to lose with rapid fire.  The bonuses reduce them both, which is why they are powerful.

 

The other thing would be the recoil values, which are affected by stability bonuses.  Some weapons have recoil yaw defined, which means they also recoil side to side.  Revenant is an example.  So in reality you can't turn it into a laser without both accuracy and stability bonuses, even though the accuracy is a worse problem for the Revenant than recoil yaw.

 

Both accuracy and recoil values are multiplied by 1.5 if you are out of cover.  This is why guns are more accurate and stable in cover, with a couple exceptions where they messed up the values (Harrier.  But it is based on the Mattock and actually the Mattock has a little of this behavior but to a much smaller degree because of the fade variable).

 

With Marksman, and specifically the SP version, there is more than enough accuracy if you spec Rate of Fire, Headshots, and then Accuracy and Rate of Fire.  There are hardly any weapons worth spec'ing Accuracy at Rank 4, and definitely not any of the shotguns (if you stack too much accuracy, the pellet spread gets larger again).

[Rusted Cage]

Thanks Capn, the gameplay does indeed feel like that of a ME1 Infiltrator, especially now I've settled on Overload and Sabotage as my other two powers. I tried Red's drone suggestion for CC but found I occasionally needed a stronger combo - like against the brutes at the end of the Tuchanka mission - due to the fairly low powered weapons I'm using. In fact, I've found that the Eagle is good for emulating the non-stop Marksman a late game ME1 Infiltrator can achieve.

 

Thanks for clearing up the Accuracy vs Rate of Fire evolution. I have re-specced for RoF and it definitely seems worth it. Now my Avenger can kill a Marauder in just one clip if I miss those headshots!

[RanetheViking]

AP Ammo has a 50% damage penalty when shooting through cover in SP.  The variable is in coalesced if you want to look there for yourself.

 

"piercingdamage" under biogame > "sfxgamecontent.sfxpowercustomaction_armorpiercingammo"

I'm a bit late to the party, but I was just browsing some of the threads and saw you guys talking about AP ammo in ME3 SP.  And I was just curious what evo you guys take at rank 6 ?. 

 

I use AP ammo as the bonus power on my Sentinel and sometimes on an Engineer.

 

I've tried both, but usually just go for the damage evo.

[capn233]

Yeah usually damage.  If you are using a very low damage per shot weapon, it might be good to take Pierce for the extra armor piercing stat.

[RanetheViking]

Damage is the way to go I think, when I tried it the other way it didn't really impress me.

 

Yeah, I imported my Engineer to 3 and chose AP ammo for my Bonus Power. It'll be a while before it gets to rank 6 though,

[capn233]

I noticed today that there was a bizarre copyright claim against the first video for this series, so I apologize if anyone tried to watch it and it was blocked for them.