Post#39 » Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:49 pm
Gonna necro just to give a little input from retail and from my own perspective on the class during that time. These ideas may not match up with the RoR mindset or meta.
First of all, I've always viewed the Engineer as a pressure class. That is, it's not a class designed to secure kills but rather a class that makes it easier for the rest of the group to do so. It has a few different ways to do this, of course, depending on the mastery chosen.
1. Rifleman
Direct pressure on low armor targets such as sorceresses, healers, and witch elves. Can occasionally secure kills. Longer range lets you reach the back line.
2. Grenadier
Mid-range group level pressure. The damage alone wasn't impressive but during retail it was often enough to weaken the effect of enemy healing to an extent that allowed the group to burst more effectively. This was especially the case with Unshakable Focus. Ideal for keep defense, area "denial", and general purpose pressure.
3. Tinkerer
Group support and close range pressure. To me this was always the roamer/small group build, in addition to bottleneck defense. This mastery pressures mostly melee groups or tightly packed attackers/defenders. Magnet for enemy displacement, useful in a lot of different ways. This line is also the debuffer version of engi depending on tactics, etc.
All three of these have limited tools to get kills but they all have specific roles and options to keep pressure on the enemy. I never played it as a standard nuker DPS and I always felt confident that I helped our WBs get kills or hold the line. With UF the kills would often happen - it was enough to overwhelm heals in many scenarios (not the game mode, the concept).
Summary:
Rifleman - Long range poke, occasional kill.
Grenadier - Keep defense and area denial.
Tinkerer - Bottleneck defense and group support.
