12 réponses à ce sujet

[EpicBananas70]

Just started a new playthrough in ME3 as an engineer on insanity. I imported from ME2 so I started on level 30 and already have a lot of skill points to spend (I'm currently level 40). I'm not sure how to make the class effective as it is quite difficult in certain combat situations at times to dispatch enemies quickly. Should I be focusing on power damage for tech combos like Cyro explosions and fire explosions with turrets for support/distraction or should I be focusing on turret damage over power damage (specifically in the final tech mastery evolution)?

[capn233]

The best powers on an Engineer in descending order are:

 

Sabotage

Overload

Incinerate

Cryo Blast

Drone

Turret

 

Not counting the passive or whatever bonus power you take.

 

Now as to focusing on power damage, the power damage bonuses will not apply to tech combos, the only thing that matters there are the rank sum of the two powers and the specific combos multiplier to the defense being targeted, as there are no combo multipliers for Tech combos in the ranks of the powers.

 

For the last rank of Tech Master, the Power Damage evolution is nearly universally better than the Drone evolution.

[Mordokai]

Keep your cooldown on -200% at all times. I found Mattock V works really great for that. Good damage and accuracy at pretty much all ranges. A very versatile AR all around. You don't need anything else.

 

I evolved her into battlefield controller. Overload goes into chain and neural shock, Incinerate for radius and damage and armor damage. Cryo is situational, but still pretty neat. I actually skipped on Tech Vulnerability, because that would be just to damn sick. But it's certainly a prime choice.

 

Combo with yourself. Take Garrus and EDI and Tali for your mates, since more combos that way. Personally, I prefer Liara, but that's just me... I like to take her along with every class. She is a good choice, no matter what you may hear, but the three already mentioned are perhaps even better.

 

tl;dr: your biggest priority is that -200% on cooldown. Everything else will come on it's own.

[EpicBananas70]

Thanks for the input I think I've found a good setup now. I find using energy drain as my bonus power is useful for setting up tech bursts and works well with incinerate, sabotage and overload.

[EpicBananas70]

Also, energy drain works well with overload that my squadmates have as overload can't detonate another overload so I can hit an enemy with energy drain and instead of waiting for my powers to recharge so I can follow it up with overload I can quickly use my squadmate's overload then begin a new combo on a different enemy quickly when my powers have recharged.

[RedCaesar97]

Apologies Mordokai, but i have some differing opinions.
 

Keep your cooldown on -200% at all times. I found Mattock V works really great for that. Good damage and accuracy at pretty much all ranges. A very versatile AR all around. You don't need anything else.
...
 
tl;dr: your biggest priority is that -200% on cooldown. Everything else will come on it's own.

I disagree about keeping cooldown at -200%.
 
First, I think you mean +200%.
Second, you do not even need it at +200%. Allow me to explain.
 
If you want to combo tech powers -- specifically, if you want to combo your own tech powers -- tech powers typically have around a 3-second window to detonate after priming. This means you can keep your weapon weight from +200% to +150% and you can still detonate your own tech powers.
 
Now, if you take Defense Matrix/Barrier/Fortification, then you have to compensate for the cooldown penalty, in which case you will need closer to +200% weapon weight.
 
As for weapons, use whatever you like. Mattock is fine. I prefer sniper rifles on the Engineer myself. Pistols or SMGs are also good as you can get extra power damage with Power Amplifier mods with those weapons (requires Citadel DLC).
 

I evolved her into battlefield controller. Overload goes into chain and neural shock, Incinerate for radius and damage and armor damage. Cryo is situational, but still pretty neat. I actually skipped on Tech Vulnerability, because that would be just to damn sick. But it's certainly a prime choice.
 
Combo with yourself. Take Garrus and EDI and Tali for your mates, since more combos that way. Personally, I prefer Liara, but that's just me... I like to take her along with every class. She is a good choice, no matter what you may hear, but the three already mentioned are perhaps even better.

You skipped on Tech Vulnerability? Whaaaaat????
 

If you want to focus on combos, then Sabotage with Tech Vulnerability is your single-greatest power. If you sabotage an enemy, then for 10 seconds the Tech Vulnerability will increase the power damage of the next power by +200%, AND WILL ALSO increase the damage of tech bursts (electrical explosions). Trust me, do not skip on Tech Vulnerability. It is just that good. And oh yeah, Tech Vulnerability will also increase the damage of the Sabotage backfire as well.

 

Now I spec my (best) Engineer(s) like this:

 

Sabotage: Backfire > Explosive Hack > Tech Vulnerability

Overload: Damage > Neural Shock > Shield Damage

Incinerate: Damage > Burning Damage > Armor Damage

Tech Mastery: Damage > Damage and Capacity > Power Mastery

Fitness: All health and shield bonuses (bottom row)

 

The reason I do not take radius on rank 4 Incinerate or Chain on rank 4 Overload is that you just do not get many shielded or armored enemies. I think single target is better, especially for the occasional super elite enemies. Now, if you ignore Sabotage, then by all means, take Chain Overload and Radius for Incinerate at rank 4.

 

For bonus powers, Fortification or AP Ammo are the best choices. Fortification has the lowest cooldown penalty (only -50%) and greatest power damage bonus (+30% at rank 5) between itself, Barrier, and Defense Matrix. AP Ammo allows natural cover penetration, armor piercing, and increased weapon damage.

 

Playstyle:

1) Sabotage. Wait for the backfire. You can only combo off the backfire.

2) Overload or incinerate. Overload for health/Shields, Incinerate for armor.

 

You can string combos as long as they are a different combo type (cannot string two electrical combos, but can string electrical > fire combos together). So Sabotage > Incinerate (electrical) > Overload (fire) > then you can alternate between Overload and Incinerate. Note that you can only really do this again enemies with a lot of armor and shields like Atlases, Harvesters, and Geth Primes.

[RedCaesar97]

Here are a few videos to show you what I mean:

 

1) Engineer Shepard versus three Geth Primes.

 

2) Engineer Shepard versus Reapers.

[RedCaesar97]

Thanks for the input I think I've found a good setup now. I find using energy drain as my bonus power is useful for setting up tech bursts and works well with incinerate, sabotage and overload.

 

 

Also, energy drain works well with overload that my squadmates have as overload can't detonate another overload so I can hit an enemy with energy drain and instead of waiting for my powers to recharge so I can follow it up with overload I can quickly use my squadmate's overload then begin a new combo on a different enemy quickly when my powers have recharged.

 

I would stop using Energy Drain myself as Sabotage with Tech Vulnerability works much better than Energy Drain. You just do not face enough shielded or synthetic enemies to make it worth it. And Sabotage with Tech Vulnerability is the best priming tech power in the game bar none. It is just that good. I have primed with Sabotage and then wiped out an entire group of enemies with a follow-up Overload/Incinerate for the tech burst. I posted videos showing it in my previous post. I can always show an example using Cerberus enemies if you need me to (but it will take me some time as I would have to record it first).

[RedCaesar97]

Sorry for the spam of posts, but I should point out that you can spec the ME3 Engineer in a number of ways. A combo-heavy Engineer (as described earlier by myself and Mordekai) is just one way.

 

capn233 is currently running a Combat Engineer which mimics the multiplayer Human Engineer with Combat Drone, Overload, and Incinerate.

 

There is also a Drone Master Engineer which uses Combat Drone, Sentry Turret, and Defense Drone.

 

I also ran a Puppet Master Engineer (link to playlist on YouTube) which uses Dominate (requires beating Leviathan DLC first with any previous character), Sabotage, and Drone and sometimes Cryo Blast to control and distract enemies.

 

Also, be sure to check out The Big Strategy Thread for more information. Note that this thread was created before the move to the new forum software, so most of the links go to the old BSN site.

[capn233]

Yeah I can vouch for all those links.

 

Oh and I agree about the cooldowns.  To me the sweet spot seems to be about +60% or so.  Of course more positive also works, but then again weapon weight is fine as long as it is leading to weapon damage.  So I have no qualms about putting a Saber V and maybe a backup on my Engineer since I can do damage with the weapons in between casting.

[Mordokai]

Apologies Mordokai, but i have some differing opinions.
 

I disagree about keeping cooldown at -200%.
 
First, I think you mean +200%.
Second, you do not even need it at +200%. Allow me to explain.
 
If you want to combo tech powers -- specifically, if you want to combo your own tech powers -- tech powers typically have around a 3-second window to detonate after priming. This means you can keep your weapon weight from +200% to +150% and you can still detonate your own tech powers.
 
Now, if you take Defense Matrix/Barrier/Fortification, then you have to compensate for the cooldown penalty, in which case you will need closer to +200% weapon weight.
 
As for weapons, use whatever you like. Mattock is fine. I prefer sniper rifles on the Engineer myself. Pistols or SMGs are also good as you can get extra power damage with Power Amplifier mods with those weapons (requires Citadel DLC).

 

Plus, minus... I always get those two confused. I thought minus was the good one, but I may have been wrong. So yeah, the good one. Or rather, the whole bar blue. And I admit, I never put much thought into it. I invested enough into it to get to +200% and was happy with that. I did try some different weapon loadouts, some of which resulted in less than aforementioned +200% and I think the difference in cooldowns was noticeable, at least to me. Now, I'm allowing for the possibility that I also screwed around with armors and that was the reason for longer cooldowns. Truth be told, I'm not entirely sure how the whole system works... if I can, I set my cooldown timer on maximum and go from there. Worked well for me so far, though I will certainly pay more attention to it next time I play.

 

But do expect some extra questions from me, because you piqued my curiosity and now I just won't be able to sleep until those questions are answered

 

 

You skipped on Tech Vulnerability? Whaaaaat????
 

If you want to focus on combos, then Sabotage with Tech Vulnerability is your single-greatest power. If you sabotage an enemy, then for 10 seconds the Tech Vulnerability will increase the power damage of the next power by +200%, AND WILL ALSO increase the damage of tech bursts (electrical explosions). Trust me, do not skip on Tech Vulnerability. It is just that good. And oh yeah, Tech Vulnerability will also increase the damage of the Sabotage backfire as well.

 

Yeah, I did. For two reasons. I'm not the biggest on optimization, I prefer to go for fun. So, my engineer ended up running around with fully evolved Lash, because I roleplayed her as having a minor biotic talent. Somewhere down the line, I specced out into Armor piercing ammo and from there on, I was waving between the two, depending on the mission in question. It was far from optimized, but it was insanely fun. Of all the powers at engineers disposal, I found Sabotage easiest to drop, since three ranks in it was still plenty enough to hack just about anything hackable.

 

And second, which ties into the one above, I found the game plenty easy enough even without the extra help of Tech Vulnerability. My engineer was having a grand ol' time even without that and, as mentioned, I'm not the best at optimizing. When I saw Sabotage line, I just didn't connect the dots and ended up dropping it in favor of just about everything else. Still never had a problem.

 

I'm not saying my engineer was the most optimized, but it was fun to play and even on Insanity, I never had any problems with any encounter. However, when I next run engineer throughout the game, I'll take some of your recommendations into account and see how that turns out. So thanks for giving me ideas, those are always welcome

[RedCaesar97]

Plus, minus... I always get those two confused. I thought minus was the good one, but I may have been wrong. So yeah, the good one. Or rather, the whole bar blue. And I admit, I never put much thought into it. I invested enough into it to get to +200% and was happy with that. I did try some different weapon loadouts, some of which resulted in less than aforementioned +200% and I think the difference in cooldowns was noticeable, at least to me. Now, I'm allowing for the possibility that I also screwed around with armors and that was the reason for longer cooldowns. Truth be told, I'm not entirely sure how the whole system works... if I can, I set my cooldown timer on maximum and go from there. Worked well for me so far, though I will certainly pay more attention to it next time I play.

The recharge speed formula is explained here. Assuming no additional cooldown bonuses from armor or intel:

 - with +200% weapon weight, the cooldown on Overload/Incinerate rank 2 is 2.46 seconds.

 - with +150% weapon weight, the cooldown on Overload/Incinerate rank 2 is 2.91 seconds

 

2.91 seconds is still enough time to detonate your own combos.

So the Overload/Incinerate cooldown difference between +200% and +150% weapon weight is only about 0.5 seconds.

Now, if that is noticeable for you, then sure, go ahead and keep it at +200%.

 

Now when I use Fortification specced for maximum damage reduction, the cooldown penalty is -50%, so if I want to still combo my own powers, then I need my weapon weight at +200%. Wearing armor with cooldown bonuses can give me more flexibility, but at the cost of more power damage. Most of the time power damage does not mean much, but personally I find it worth it for super elite enemies like Atlases and Banshees.

 

Now all of that is predicated on you/me wanting to combo your own powers. If you do not care about comboing your own powers are you are building/playing your Engineer without needing to combo, then carrying more weapon weight weight is fine. I have used the Claymore on the Engineer (+98% weapon weight with Claymore V) before, but that just means I will not be comboing my own powers. 

 

...I prefer to go for fun.
... but it was insanely fun.
...I'm not saying my engineer was the most optimized, but it was fun to play and even on Insanity,

And having fun is -- generally speaking -- the most important thing when playing a game. So as long as you had fun playing a game, that is all that matters.

[brad2240]

I agree mostly with what Capn233 and Red have said regarding powers and builds. I differ from Red on my Overload spec, though. I normally go Chain/Neural/Shield Damage and use it as much for crowd control as anything else. My last build spec'd Damage/Neural/Chain and that plays pretty much the same. I think its hard to screw up Overload.

 

I tend to play my SP Engineer like my MP Engineer. Overload for crowd control and shield stripping, Incinerate to trigger the Tech Burst, and add in a healthy dose of gunplay. I rarely use Sabotage on mooks, they just die too quickly anyway.

 

In general I find casting anything other than Overload, Incinerate and Sabotage to be a waste of a cooldown. I don't care for the behavior of Drones and Turrets in this game and everything Cryoblast does is done better by something else.

 

For a bonus power I take Armor Piercing Ammo because I do shoot a lot or, if I plan to use James a lot (I often do) I spec for Fortification/Defense Matrix and just borrow Incendiary Ammo from him. I tend to role-play my builds so I don't take biotic powers on my Engineers.

 

For armor I wear the full Serrice Council set for power damage, with whatever helmet I feel like looking at.

 

For weapons, I carry a good light-ish weapon which varies depending on my mood at the time. I try to keep my power CDs at 3 seconds or less. I never take more than one weapon on a caster class, there's no need. Ammo is plentiful and most of the killing is done by powers anyway.