The Engineer: Strikes and bots and drones, oh my!!!!
Edit by Bryan: There have been major innovations in the Striker setup since the beginning of the game,links to threads with new information provided below. Hey there. The engineer is one of the most talked about and discussed classes in game. And after months, we still have the same arguments when it comes to them. There are a few concrete things that we do know. Engi strikes plus splash = exp grinding machine. If you don't have max haste bot; you can forget boss running groups. That being said there are a few things I would like to talk about when it comes to builds. The builds I discuss here will all be based on the idea of boss running. Now that we have had Global for a while. We know that crit chance is all the rage. Its applied to our strikes and so the pure striker was born as a viable end game choice.
This is a simple skill build for
http://www.hellgateaus.cyou/planner/#Engineer,55,50,1,v1.00001031a031000000000000060a17770 Lets break it down
The one pt in tac stance has it purpose I will explain later. Any other questions feel free to post them in this thread.
When some one says build in this game. Most people assume that skills are the only thing you are discussing. Let me address my biggest pet peeve when it comes to this argument. Your build is your entire character. Skills, equipment, and expertise and achievement skills. I intend to cover them all. So lets take a look at the equipment build most players use for this type of engineer.
Helm – Eyes of the Maverick- 2 crit
Shoulder - SuE Steadiers- 2 crit
Arms – Duellos – 3 crit
Torso – Hero's Half Shell
Belt- Kaiser's Kit or Mini set belt – 1 or 2 crit
Legs-Bughides – 7-8% ccm
Boots – Grimsoles – 2% crit
Ring – Dark Master or Monarch 2-3 crit
Low side 13% crit from equipment- yes it is all pricy gear. So if you are leveling a striker as your first toon save you palladium you are going to need it. Your u are looking for AA, Acc, increased tactical skill use rate. Then str and then will. With this build you don't need minion dmg unless are you are using Molotov assault as a fill in between strikes.
Since there is already a great post on this site about how crit dmg is calculated I wont go in to that. But realize that every point you have in accuracy increases your dmg out put.
Now lets look at the expertise.
We will get the no-brainers out of the way first.
Surgical percision- you are now up to 18% crit on the low side if you have the palladium, high side is 20% and we haven't talked about weapon choices yet .
Toughness- as squishy as u are in full crit gear the extra 140 armor will be a huge benefit when tackling some of the bosses.
Tranquility- If u are building a crit based character I cannot stress enough how important this expertise is for any class. It allows you to put the minimum willpower to equip your gear and assists in spamming the skills that matter. Any time you don't have to worry about the shared cool down between health injectors and power packs equals a higher survivability.
Affliction- increasing the ingite and stun chances of smackdown and Napalm strike can be the difference in you deal noticeable dmg or not. It can also mean the difference in the survivability of yourself and your tank.
The final expertise depends on play style. This is the point where some will say. “Hey!!!! Hey, Asshole! You forgot Cruelty!” For those people. Please read the post on how increase in dmg affects the crit dmg calculation, thank you. I would suggest however improved willpower for some of the same reasons as I suggested Tranquility.
Now lets talk weapons. You know the fun part.
Unless you just happen to have a Nemisis Z-83 hangin out with 5% additional crit and CCM bonuses. Get a Person of thor (jupiter) with three crit and full slots. There are multiple reasons choosing this gun over the mythic. First the base crit on this weapon is 7%. High side total crit at this pt 27% before mods or achievement skills. Low pt 25% also this is with out calculating bughides ccm. At this point should be adding an additional 2% base crit. So 29% high side- 27% low side. Toss in a crit chance bonus tech or two. And u will be at 31% crit. On the low side. Here where it still get pricy. U are going to need minimum two. Fill the remaing slots with ccm v demon on one and beast on the other. If really dont wanna bother with a weapon switch. You will need at least 3, one filled with ccm v every race and the other two. You should be looking for ccm plus ele dmg on your mods. To give you the maximum dmg output. (again see crit dmg calculation post), these will be the ones you will actually shoot so bump them to +6 in the nano forge as soon as possible.
Still I suggest the thor over the Z and heres the reasoning for the one point spent in tac stance.
Because your haste bot has a limited range and so does your weapon. U need to be able to drop back far enough to haste a marksman in sniper stance and still do dmg yourself. The Thor has a base range of 30m and the z only 25. This means the z will only allow to drop back 31m where the thor will give you 37m. And additional 6m. The average mm gun has a range of 25m in sniper stance they will get 40m range the thor and tactical stance guarntees that u will be able to keep them hasted.
Next weapons you will be looking for are xm43 bolters. There are some that will suggest the the lower level xm 41 or 42, I disagree here personally as the Xm43 chrome bolters are the only 1-hand hunter weapons that provide 4 mod slots. And number of mod slots directly corresponds with final dmg output. No need to nanoforge these as you will only use them to switch to when you want to clear a large area.
Mods for these
fuels: amplified – increase spl radius 15-17% with ccm v race or ele dmg.
Tech- avengers(+2 crit), increased tac use rate either with added ele dmg. Or dual ele dmg mod.
The bolter will eat your str feed like a fat kid will kill cake. This is where you want to look for the lowest possible mod that will fit your bolter.
The optimal on weapon augs/affixes u will be looking for on the bolters are:
Avengers-3% crit
Megacircumferntial – 20%-22% Splash radius increase.
Snapshot- increases tacitical skill use rate.
Bane - Ccm v race
Steadied - Base/Raw ccm%
Finally we come to the passive achievement skills. You get 5 here lets choose them wisely.
1% crit- from pvp – 20 pvp wins with most kills on team
2% crit -pvp – 100 pvp wins with most kills on team
+5 accuracy - kill shulgoth 30 times
+5 Str – kill 10k imps – (you have the AOE for it so its easy) leaves youu 5 more points to be spent in accuracy effectively increasing your critical dmg bonus.
Final passive bonus is up to you if you haven't maxed spent points in Improved will power I would suggest killing sydonai 30 times for the bonus if u haven't nano forged over 100 times.
So lets look at the Bosses and we will be killing and how the scenarios play out with a standard party (Tank, Engi, and three DPS toons).
You must have haste up for every boss as it is like adding a 4th dps to the party.
Moloch- There is a random chance of multiple gremlin diabolists and multiple Winged gremlin types are added at the start and from time to time through out the fight. At 60% and 30% fiend priests are summoned as healers.
Here's how this plays out as a pure strike engi. Tank does his tanky thing. You summon haste and immediately drop massive strike of choice to clear the trash mobs. DPS gets in your haste bubble and and does their job. Here's where I get in most of my arguments over the single most important skill a hunter can have. If you do not have max beacon, your party must have an mm who was smart enough to do it for you. That further puts constraints on your party and makes selecting the DPS component of more specific. So Max beacon.... don't leave home with out it. This also means that after the initial boom your strikes will still do good dmg but have a tendancy to lag other players in your party. If no one complains of lag great. If they do well u have lost 21 skill points to lag. That's a huge investment out of 56 (counting the event skill expander). Using Molotov here is much like using a strike with out lag. But also with out your crit. So crappy dmg output over all unless you manage to ignite. And a huge power point expenditure as well. Basically your job clear initial trash. Look pretty and provide haste for others to kill faster with.
Occulis- This boss fight is where you really get to shine as a pure striker. The Trash mobs don't stop flowing in so your insane quantity of AOE is well used here. The idea here is simple. Strike, provide beacon if necessary.. and oh STRIKE some more.
Berial/Belial- Strategy here find a platform and park your squishy self on it. The rest of the DPS will do the same. This is another fight where a pure striker is never really turned down. This is the only fight I know where the Adds summon Adds. So AOE is welcome for the most part. Also a boss fight where you will find that Escape is a life saver. Most people see escape for the drop aggro part, and while that is the skills main use, never forget that for one second you are INVINCIBLE!!!!!! This will help you navigate the main floor to get your party a clear shot at Berial's midget clones. Drop strikes as fast as you can to clear mobs. Again if you are the only one with max beacon keep him painted.
Kurodon, the glutton- This is the most mobile boss with the aboslutely most annoying adds a boss can muster. For this one never stop moving unless the boss is vulnerable and the tank has him taunted in some fashion. When you do stop gather up your dps players so they can get the haste bonus. When he summons adds strike your self silly switch to your demon ccm weapon when you do. He may be a beast lord but the Adds he summons are demon and will heal him to 100% quickly. Once you strike focus on keeping beacon on the dragoons. Rinse wash repeat till he is dead.
Kabustinatan- This one ill give you the basics of an engi. As the tactics and player placement depend on the tanks style. And tactics. Things not to do. DO NOT – Summon inhibitor bots. Their stream will pull unnecessary aggro that the tank has to deal with and will get you seeing black and white and complaining about a death penalty. Once u have gotten to ur final position inside the tanks aura. DO NOT MOVE. Keep your happy squishy self in side his bubble so he can heal you. Pop escape if his taunt fails to drop aggro. But STAY STILL. I know this goes against every thing you have learned and all the habits you have developed to this point. The more you move the more time he will go invulnerable and summon big nasty adds that you now have to deal with. DO NOT STRIKE- this will pull unecessary aggro and possibly lag the tank. lag the tank wipe the party.
post any questions here and i will be happy to answer them as soon as i can! Good Luck and happy hunting!!
