Chillblain's Engineer Guide from the HGL Forums:

Original thread with questions and comments: http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?t=42527

Sections

I. Introduction to the Engineer
II. Stat Allocation
III. Engineer Skills
IV. Example Builds
V. Frequently Asked Questions
VI. Misc Info (things I may have forgotten to add, credits, etc)

I. Introduction

If you are completely new to the game you might want to take a quick glance at the http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?t=22548 before reading on, it has some good tips and answers for any questions you might have about the game in general.

Why play an Engineer?
Good question. There are currently six classes in Hellgate: London and you may be asking yourself, what makes the engineer so special? What sets them apart from the others? Well, quite simply, we have robots and all kinds of nifty high-tech weaponary at our disposal. The engineer is like a mix between the summoner class and the marksman class- You wield a vast array of mostly projectile-type weapons and grenades, yet you can also build an army of deadly machines to assist you in your crusade against the demonic plague that has infested London. Essentially, if you like having robotic pets and shooting up holes in monsters with all kinds of different guns- Engineer is the class for you.

What kind of robotic pets do we get?
There are two types of pets for the engineer: Bots and the Drone. Of the 'Bots' type of pet you can only have two different kinds out at any given time. Of the 'Drone' type of pets you can only have one out at any given time.

The bots are pets that can't be targeted by enemies and will remain in play till they are either de-activated by you (you can right-click pets using alt than click dismiss), you use a skill that destroys them (I'll get to this later =p), or you zone out into a town/safe area. There are several different kinds of bots ranging from ones that fire rockets at your enemies, ones that slow enemy movement, and ones that can even bend time (I'm not kidding, they make it so you shoot faster and use skills quicker).

The drone is pretty much your tank, secondary team-mate, and good friend. Enemies can and will target your drone, but this is a good thing because that keeps them off you. The drone levels up with you gaining 2 stat points per level. Through later skills you can eventually equip the drone with a gun, a chest-piece, and a sword as well as give your drone new abilities such as healing you and your party or rooting itself in place to shoot faster.

Okay, that sounds cool, did you say something about guns and grenades?
I did indeed. Not only does the engineer get nifty cool robot friends, but we also get access to a wide array of guns (the same ones as the marksman) and skills that allow us to bomb an area with various damage types (phasing, electric, physical, and fire), fire guns faster/better/accurately, and a skill that lets us cloak out of a fight.

II. Stat Allocation

The Engineer's stats
-This part is entirely my personal take on the engi, so don't take it literally, it's just advice-
For the most part, I think engineers are given quite a bit of room to drop points where they'd like. Unlike some of the other classes, we don't need an especially huge power pool to work from (well, I guess this depends on your build, if you use your skills more than you rely on bots/drone to dish out damage, you might want more will), we don't really need a huge amount of hp (even if you planned on going drone-less you don't want to be standing around taking the damage, you're better off with run and gun), we definately don't need much strength unless you're going a crazy bladesaw build, and accuracy is only good for equipping better weapons or dishing out bigger crits with your guns.

For a more general approach to stats most engi's would probably want to go-

Will->Stam->Acc->Str

You'd have more willpower to use all your skills and meet the expensive mod/equipment costs at higher levels, more stam for meeting gear reqs and living longer, accuracy to help with equip costs, than str to help with equip costs.

Like I said, it's fairly open ended how one can distribute their stats with the only exception being that str should likely come last. Since the engi class is so flexible, it's generally a good idea to save some stat points when leveling for when you come across really good pieces of gear or need to meet mod reqs.

Added by Bifflical-
"I still have absolutely no need to ever allocate an attribute point until I specifically need it for equipment or for having enough mana to cast spells.
Sometimes, when I feel like I'm short on mana to handle the beacon, escape, etc... at a comfortable level, I add a few points into willpower.
But there is never any need to put any points in any attribute other than willpower, without a specific equipment need.
There will be plenty of times when you want a pool of available points to allow equipping the next great piece of armor you find."

Basically, another way you could play it is that you save all of your attribute points for when you really need it for certain pieces of gear or need to bump up your power pool a bit with more will to use your skills.

The Drone's stats
Now, here's where things really get tricky. You only get 2 stat points per level for your drone and he already starts off with fairly low stats (3 in everything). It's best not to waste your points since you don't get nearly as many as you do for yourself. First you should ask yourself- what do I want my drone to do? Do I want it to tank? Do I want it to gun things down or chop them up in melee? What if I want it to be a jack of all trades? Depending on which of these you're aiming for, you'll want to put more stats into certain attributes. Also, for those who don't know, you access the drone's stats page by holding alt, than right clicking on your drone's portrait, than left clicking on inventory. Alternatively you can also use any of the retrofit skills to open the drone stats/equip page.

My suggestions-
If you want your drone to tank:
Stam->Str->Acc->Will
If you want it to gun enemies down:
Acc->Stam->Will->Str
If you want it to be mostly melee:
Str->Stam->Will->Acc
Jack of all trades:
Stam->Acc/Will->Str

It's always a good idea to save drone attribute points if you already have good gear on him and if you don't need the points for anything else. Save those points for if you get something really good that would be amazing for your drone. Regardless of how you do your drone builds, you should always try to keep the drone's stam fairly high, he will get hit a lot.

This post was edited by Schlag96 on Apr 16 2008 01:00pm

III. Engineer Skills

Ah, the meat of the guide, so to speak. This is where I plan to go into the skills of the engineer and give a brief description on each skill, my opinion of the skill, and other useful info.

For the most part there are pretty much 3-types of skills in the engineer's list: Tactical skills, Bot Skills, and Drone Skills. Tactical skills are ones that either do aoe damage to enemies, buff the engi, or debuffs enemies- They're the engineer's support skills, what the engineer himself contributes to the fight. The bot skills are all the skills dealing with bots. The drone skills are the skills dealing with the drone.

All skills are assuming Engineer level 50- since some things scale with level (special effect attack strengths for instance) some of these values may be different at lower levels.

Tactical Skills

Tactical Stance

• Description: You kneel down making it easier to fire your weapons. A self-buff that is kept on until you move or use certain skills.
• Skill type: Buff
• Pre-req: None
• Number of ranks: 10
• Rate of use: Toggled, so whenever
• Power cost: Moderate
• What it does: Firing accuracy is increased by 50%, range increased by 25%, projectile velocity increased by 25%, and crit chance increased by an amount determined per point in the skill
• Additional ranks: Grant an additional +1% chance to crit starting at 4% for the first rank and ending at 13% with 10 ranks.
• My note: Great skill if you plan on using your weapons a lot or don't intend to pick up a drone. For the amount of buffs it gives at the cost of only one point, I'd recommend all engi's drop at least one point here.

Rapid Fire

• Description: You activate this skill and shoot, A LOT.
• Skill type: Instant Use
• Pre-req: 1/10 Tactical Stance, Level 10
• Number of ranks: 10
• Rate of use: 10 secs
• Power cost: Moderate-high
• What it does: For 3 secs you stand still and shoot at a incredibly increased rate of fire and do an additional +10% damage, but you lose quite a bit of weapon accuracy during Rapid Fire.
• Additional ranks: Increases rate of fire by +15% per rank starting at +100% for rank 1 and ending at +235% for rank 10.
• My note: Again, another good skill for those going weapon heavy/drone-less. Although not very accurate, whatever is immediately in front of you will get torn up and works even better with several enemies in your path (almost like turning your weapon into an large cone/spray). I have to admit I haven't tested this with all the different weapons out there, so I'm not sure if it's equally effective for all the weapons out there or not. Don't forget to be wary of the fact that rapid fire roots you in place for a little bit so it could also leave you vulnerable to enemy attacks.

Phase Grenade

• Description: You chuck a grenade that will do phase damage.
• Skill type: Instant Use
• Pre-req: Level 25
• Number of ranks: 10
• Rate of use: 5 secs
• Power cost: Low
• What it does: A grenade is thrown about 15-20m that will stick to where it's thrown than detonate 1 sec after landing. This grenade does aoe phase damage (about 2-3m radius) and has its own phase attack strength that scales with your level and increases even further with more points invested into it. The grenade itself only does a small amount of damage.
• Additional ranks: Increases phase attack strength. |Anyone know the exact amount?|
• My note: If you can't get phase from a gun, bomber bots, or your drone, this may be a good idea to invest points into since phasing enemies is incredibly beneficial to both damage mitigation and output. These grenades aren't about the up-front damage they deal, but rather the chance to phase enemies.

Smackdown

• Description: A beacon calls down a massive concussive strike on your enemies.
• Skill type: Instant Use
• Pre-req: Level 10
• Number of ranks: 7
• Rate of use: 30 secs
• Power cost: High
• What it does: You throw out a little beacon about 30m that blinks for about 2-3 secs than results in a fairly large physical damage aoe (about 6-7m radius) that damages enemies within the field for a moderate amount of damage over 3 secs with a stun attack strength that scales with your level.
• Additional ranks: Increases the stun duration by 1 sec starting at 3 secs for rank 1 and ending with 9 secs at rank 7.
• My note: The first in a line of large aoe damage abilities. Very good for stunning a pack of monsters and makes a fantastic opener on any given fight if timed right.

Shock and Awe

• Description: A beacon calls down an electrical storm upon your enemies.
• Skill type: Instant Use
• Pre-req: 3/7 Smackdown, Level 20
• Number of ranks: 7
• Rate of use: 30 secs
• Power cost: High
• What it does: You throw out a little beacon about 30m that blinks for about 2-3 secs than results in a fairly large electrical damage aoe (about 6-7m radius) that damages enemies within the field for an amount of damage based on the number of ranks over 10 secs with a shock attack strength that scales with your level.
• Additional ranks: Increases the amount of electrical damage dealt per second.
• My note: I believe this is the most damaging, up front anyway, in this line of aoe damage dealers. This one is particularly good if your drone or someone else is tanking a large pack of creatures since it lasts long and does quite a bit of damage so long as they stay in one place.

Napalm Strike

• Description: A beacon calls down an inferno upon your enemies.
• Skill type: Instant Use
• Pre-req: 3/7 Shock and Awe, Level 30
• Number of ranks: 7
• Rate of use: 30 secs
• Power cost: High
• What it does: You throw out a little beacon about 30m that blinks for about 2-3 secs than results in a fairly large fire damage aoe (about 6-7m radius) that damages enemies within the field for a moderate amount of damage for a number of secs bases on the number of ranks invested in the skill. Has an ignite attack strength that scales with your level.
• Additional ranks: Increases the length of time the fire field lasts by 1 sec starting at 2 secs for rank 1 and reaching 8 secs at rank 7.
• My note: Good aoe damage like the other 'precision strike' skills, but seems a bit weaker compared to the others. The field doesn't last as long as Shock and Awe at max ranks and does less upfront damage than a maxed out Shock and Awe. Ignite is always good, though, especially on tough elites/bosses.

Beacon

• Description: You paint a monster to expose it's weaknesses and deal more damage to it.
• Skill type: Debuff
• Pre-req: Level 5
• Number of ranks: 10
• Rate of use: 30 secs
• Power cost: Moderate
• What it does: Increases the damage that the debuffed enemy receives based on an amount that scales with each rank put into the skill and lasts for 9 secs.
• Additional ranks: Increases damage the enemy receives by 5% per rank starting at 25% for rank 1 and ending with 70% at rank 10.
• My note: Great skill, increases damage an enemy receives, what more could you want?

Escape

• Description: You cloak yourself and disappear.
• Skill type: Buff
• Pre-req: 1/10 Beacon, Level 15
• Number of ranks: 5
• Rate of use: 15 secs
• Power cost: Moderate-high
• What it does: You become invisible until you attack for an amount of time based on the number of ranks put into the skill. Essentially it removes you from combat and takes any enemies off of you.
• Additional ranks: Increases the amount of time the buff lasts by 1 sec per rank starting at 6 secs for rank 1 and ending with 10secs at rank 5.
• My note: Almost a must have for those who want to solo and essential for those attempting a drone-less build. If a situation is getting too tough for you, throw up Escape and back off to recoup.

Bot Skills

Inhibitor Bots

• Description: 3 bots will hover around slowing down your enemies.
• Skill type: Summon
• Pre-req: None
• Number of ranks: 5
• Rate of use: None (Instant)
• Power cost: Moderate
• What it does: The 3 bots will slow down an enemy per bot for a percentage of speed based on how many ranks are in the skill.
• Additional ranks: Increases the amount of slowing speed the bots slow by 5% per rank starting with 20% slowing at rank 1 and 40% slow by rank 5.
• My note: Honestly, I wouldn't invest any points into this skill beyond what's needed to get other skills. You're likely going to be getting better bots than these so they won't likely get much use once you get better bots.

Concussive Crash

• Description: Your inhibitor bots sacrifice themselves to blow up on your enemies.
• Skill type: Instant use
• Pre-req: 3/5 Inhibitor Bots, Level 10
• Number of ranks: 7
• Rate of use: 2 secs
• Power cost: Moderate-Low
• What it does: You sacrifice your inhibitor bots to have them stun enemies in about a 5m radius for a duration based on each rank placed in the skill.
• Additional ranks: Increases the duration of stun affects by 1 sec per rank starting at 2 secs for rank 1 and going up to 8 secs for rank 7.
• My note: Stuns are nice, but again, do you plan to have inhibitor bots out or another better bot? I'd only put the amount of points needed to reach other skills in here unless you really want that stun and slowing from the Inhib bots.

Haste Bot

• Description: Here's the bot that can bend time!
• Skill type: Summon
• Pre-req: 3/7 Concussive Crash, Level 20
• Number of ranks: 7
• Rate of use: None (Instant)
• Power cost: High
• What it does: The whole parties' firing rate and skill use rate is increased by an amount according to how many ranks are placed in the skill.
• Additional ranks: Increases the firing rate and skill use rate of party members by an additional 3% per rank starting at 13% for rank 1 and going up to 31% for rank 7.
• My note: Awesome. I mean, c'mon, you fire faster and your skills can be used faster! It's a great bot and well worth the points invested into it. I'd almost say essential for the engineer that plans to party with others often.

Nanobots

• Description: An army of nanobots implants themselves into enemies and explodes when shot.
• Skill type: Summon
• Pre-req: 3/7 Haste Bot, Level 30
• Number of ranks: 10
• Rate of use: 100 secs at rank 1, 42.9 at rank 10
• Power cost: Very high
• What it does: For 40 secs a cloud of nanobots will follow you around attaching themselves to an enemy, you hit that enemy, and then they explode for some moderate-high electrical splash damage.
• Additional ranks: Increases shock attack strength by 75% per rank starting at 75% for rank 1 and going to 675% at rank 10. Each rank also changes the rate of use per rank starting at 100 secs for rank 1 and ending at 42.9 secs for rank 10.
• My note: Somewhat unreliable, the nanobots will slowly move around deciding whether or not they want to target and infect an enemy. After the nanobots infect an enemy, that enemy has to be shot for the bots to do their thing. Honestly, I'd say just go with rocket bots or the bomber bot to dish out some damage- they're much more reliable and you don't have to wait or watch for for them to do their thing like how you have to with the nanobots. Nanobots really isn't worth putting points into in my opinion- they're like a bot you have to keep re-building that occasionally does its job and requires you to go a step further and shoot what they've decided to latch onto for them to be effective. Too much work and too unreliable.

Rocket Bot

• Description: A single bot hovers overhead raining rockety death on your enemies.
• Skill type: Summon
• Pre-req: Level 5
• Number of ranks: 7
• Rate of use: None (Instant)
• Power cost: Moderate
• What it does: This bot shoots a number of rockets based on the skill rank. The rockets do a pretty good amount of fire damage that scales with your level.
• Additional ranks: Increases the number of rockets fired by the bot by 1 per rank starting with 1 rocket fired at rank 1 and ending with 7 rockets fired at rank 7.
• My note: A great bot that fits with any build. The damage is pretty good and I'd highly recommend grabbing this bot.

Molotov Assault

• Description: The rocket bot self-destructs to burn your enemies.
• Skill type: Instant Use
• Pre-req: 3/7 Rocket Bot, Level 15
• Number of ranks: 10
• Rate of use: 2 secs
• Power cost: Moderate
• What it does: Creates a fire field of about 5m radius on the enemy you have targeted (unless something obstructs the path) and self-destructs your Rocket Bot. The fire field lasts about 3-4 secs and deals high fire damage with an ignite attack strength based on the number of ranks in the skill.
• Additional ranks: Increases the ignite attack strength by 125% per rank starting with 300% at rank 1 and going up to 1425% at rank 10.
• My note: This skill does amazing damage and has a very good chance of igniting enemies. Do not pass this one up if you got rocket bots.

Bomber Bot

• Description: A bot that blasts enemies with spectral damage.
• Skill type: Summon
• Pre-req: 3/10 Molotov Assault, Level 25
• Number of ranks: 10
• Rate of use: None (Instant)
• Power cost: High
• What it does: Hovers around occasionally blasting enemies for moderate-high spectral aoe damage (maybe about 5m radius) with a phase attack strength that scales as more ranks are put into the skill
• Additional ranks: Increases phase attack strength by 75% per rank starting at 75% for rank 1 and going up to 675% at rank 10.
• My note: The bomber bots are another good source of damage in the bot tree and has the added bonus of phasing enemies. Good to pick up if you want your bots to do more damage or if you wanted something to phase enemies without having to put a phase gun on yourself or your bot or if you don't have phase grenades. The only drawback seems to be the bomber bot's somewhat slow rate of fire.

Drone Skills

Construct Drone

• Description: You build a drone that cooks, cleans, and helps you dispatch evil.
• Skill type: Summon
• Pre-req: None
• Number of ranks: 10
• Rate of use: 20 secs upon the death or dismissal of the drone
• Power cost: High
• What it does: You build a drone. The drone will hover around attacking enemies and tanking them for you. Until later skills, the bot only starts with a built in electric damage laser that does minimal damage. Each rank increases the drones total hp.
• Additional ranks: Increases the drone's hp by +25% per rank starting at +25% for rank 1 and ending at +225% for rank 10.
• My note: I personally like the drone a lot, but some are still on the fence about the little guy. He has some AI issues- sometimes he'll shoot a wall, run off by himself into several packs of enemies, or do nothing- but most the time I find the drone to be pretty reliable. Plus the drone makes a great tank because it generates insane amounts of aggro just by being near whatever it fights. I think it has some kind of aoe taunt the player doesn't see that's always in effect.

Gun Retrofit

• Description: You modify your drone so he can equip a gun.
• Skill type: Passive
• Pre-req: 3/10 Construct Drone, Level 10
• Number of ranks: 7
• Rate of use: Passive
• Power cost: Passive
• What it does: Increases your drone's accuracy by a set amount per rank and makes it so your drone can equip any type of projectile-type weapon (including 1h/2h and those of other classes besides marksman/engineer with the exception of focus weapons).
• Additional ranks: Increases accuracy by 7 per rank starting at +7 acc for rank 1 and ending at +49 acc for rank 7.
• My note: A must have if you've invested points into the drone tree. This will increase your drone's damage significantly. The best types of guns I've found to put on the drone are either beam-type weapons, aoe weapons, and most non-rapid fire type guns- see the faq section for more info.

Tactical Mode

• Description: The drone remains stationary so it can shoot and use skills faster.
• Skill type: Instant use
• Pre-req: 2/7 Gun Retrofit, Level 15
• Number of ranks: 7
• Rate of use: 40 secs
• Power cost: Moderate
• What it does: It increases the drone's rate of fire and skill use by a percentage based on the number of ranks put into the skill. Lasts for 10 secs.
• Additional ranks: Increases the drones rate of fire and skill use by 20% per rank starting at 100% for rank 1 and ending with 220% at rank 7.
• My note: This skill is alright, lets you command your drone a bit (kind of like a "stay" command) and increases its fire output. If you planned on just going guns on your drone you might want to pick this skill up otherwise I wouldn't invest much into it since it burns your energy and takes up a slot on your bar for a skill that is mediocre.

Advanced Tactical Mode

• Description: Buffs up tactical mode to include a shield boost.
• Skill type: Passive
• Pre-req: 2/7 Tactical Mode, Level 25
• Number of ranks: 10
• Rate of use: Passive
• Power cost: Passive
• What it does: During tactical mode, increases the amount of shields on the drone by a certain percentage based on the number of ranks put into the skill.
• Additional ranks: Increases the shields of the drone during tactical mode by 80% per rank starting at 80% for rank 1 and going up to 800% at rank 10.
• My note: Why did they even make this skill? I mean, it doesn't increase your drone's damage or anything useful besides making it have more shields for 10 secs every 40 secs. Woo. For a level 25 skill it's pretty lack-luster.

Sword Retrofit

• Description: Now your drone can stab things in the face with swords!
• Skill type: Passive
• Pre-req: 2/7 Gun Retrofit, Level 20
• Number of ranks: 7
• Rate of use: Passive
• Power cost: Passive
• What it does: It will increase your willpower by a certain amount per rank and allows your drone to equip any melee-type weapon (besides shields!).
• Additional ranks: Increases the drone's willpower by 7 per rank starting at 7 for rank 1 and ending at 49 for rank 7.
• My note: I really recommend putting at least one skill point into this even if going pure guns. You can at least equip something like wart's leg and get more armor for your drone. You can also equip both a 2h projectile weapon AND a melee weapon at the same time.

Gyroblade

• Description: Your drone does a whirlwind-ish attack.
• Skill type: Instant Use
• Pre-req: 2/7 Sword Retrofit, Level 30
• Number of ranks: 10
• Rate of use: Depends on number of ranks in the skill, starts at 40secs
• Power cost: Extreme
• What it does: When activated your drone will attack all enemies around it with the equipped melee weapon.
• Additional ranks: Makes it so you can use the skill more often starting at every 40secs for rank 1 and ending at every 12.3 secs for rank 10.
• My note: Again, another lack-luster high level skill. Costs a lot of energy just to turn your drone into a spinning top. Doesn't increase the damage of the melee attack or anything, just makes it hit all enemies immediately near the drone. Not really worth points unless you go melee crazy with your drone.

Medpak Retrofit

• Description: The drone heals the parties' health.
• Skill type: Instant Use
• Pre-req: 2/10 Construct Drone, Level 5
• Number of ranks: 10
• Rate of use: 40 secs
• Power cost: High
• What it does: Pulses out heals every 5 seconds for about 20 secs or so that restores an amount of health based on the number of ranks in the skill. Keep in mind to stay near your drone when you use this since the healing radius isn't all that large and pulses out from the drone's location.
• Additional ranks: Increases healing by 20% per rank starting at 20% for rank 1 and ending at 180% for rank 10.
• My note: This skill is okay. It's not all that great, but having a skill that can heal can save you from having to use health injectors. I'd still say stick with health injectors unless you intend to party with others often and would like to be able to help heal any melee party members.

Shield Generator Retrofit

• Description: Your drone recharges the parties' shields.
• Skill type: Instant Use
• Pre-req: 2/10 Medpak Retrofit, Level 20
• Number of ranks: 10
• Rate of use: 40 secs
• Power cost: High
• What it does: The drone increases the rate at which the parties' shields recharge at a percentage rate based on the ranks put in the skill.
• Additional ranks: Increases the shield recharge rate of the party by 20% per rank starting at 20% for rank 1 and ending at 180% for rank 10.
• My note: Not worth points. Shields already recharge fairly fast and this will just eat up your skill points that would be better spent elsewhere.

Repair Drone

• Description: You repair your drone with a little bit of elbow grease.
• Skill type: Instant Use
• Pre-req: 2/10 Construct Drone, Level 5
• Number of ranks: 10
• Rate of use: Depends on ranks put in the skill, starts at 20 secs
• Power cost: Moderate
• What it does: Repairs your drone for 50% of its total life.
• Additional ranks: Makes it so you can use the skill faster starting at every 20secs for rank 1 and ending at every 2.6 secs at rank 10.
• My note: A must have for drone users. This is what really keeps your drone alive. I only recommend putting a few points into this skill since it suffers greatly from diminishing returns (first few points see major benefit, but past about 3 points you aren't getting much mileage from your skill ranks).

Armor Retrofit

• Description: Your drone gets to sport some chest armor.
• Skill type: Passive
• Pre-req: 2/10 Repair Drone, Level 15
• Number of ranks: 7
• Rate of use: Passive
• Power cost: Passive
• What it does: Increases the drone's str and stam by a certain amount per rank and allows for the drone to use any type of chest armor (not limited by class).
• Additional ranks: Increases the drone's str and stam by 7 per rank starting at 7 for rank 1 and ending at 49 for rank 7.
• My note: If you plan on going drone heavy, get this skill. Not only can the chest armor add some nice beneficial affects to the drone, but the drone gets double the armor value from anything that gives it armor. As an added bonus to being able to wear armor, the drone also gets free points in stam AND str per rank of Armor Retrofit. Sweet deal if you ask me- this skill will really help keep your drone alive as the game gets harder.

Master Engineer

• Description: You learn to build sturdier drones.
• Skill type: Passive
• Pre-req: 2/7 Armor Retrofit, Level 25
• Number of ranks: 7
• Rate of use: Passive
• Power cost: Passive
• What it does: Increases the amount of armor on your drone by a certain percentage per rank put into the skill.
• Additional ranks: Increases the drone's armor by 35% per rank starting at 35% for rank 1 and going up to 245% for rank 7.
• My note: If you are a heavy drone build you might want to pick this up to help keep your drone alive. Kind of lacking for a high level skill, you'd think they'd increase all the drone's stats or increase it's damage output or something more than just increasing the drone's armor. Master Engineer indeed, eh? Still a pretty good skill, though, since extra armor for the drone is always a plus.

This post was edited by Schlag96 on Apr 16 2008 12:59pm

IV. Example Builds

First and foremost you should be aware that there is a skill calculator that can be found here- http://hellgate.ingame.de/skilltree/engineer/

I'd like to note that I know you can get skill ranks from gear, so you may not always want to max out skills, but I feel there are some skills that should be maxed out just in case you don't get good gear that will give ranks to the skills you need. That said, there are some skills you also don't want to max out since you don't have to have the gear that gives the skill rank benefit always equipped to keep the benefit (skills like construct drone, master engineer, and all the retrofits are only checked upon the building of the drone- so you can swap out gear going into an instance, build the drone, than swap that gear back out and keep the benefits). For the sake of this section I'm going to assume you don't get any good +skill gear just to get some build ideas out there- don't take these builds literally if you plan on balancing out +skill gear in order to maximize the number of skill ranks you can get.

Also note: be careful when using +skill gear dealing with the drone because if you don't have any actual points in the retrofit or construct drone skills you CAN lose the gear you equip on the drone.

Note note note: heh, quite a few notes, eh? I didn't split up builds into pve/pvp sections, the builds are mostly similar except that one might drop a few skills that don't work in pvp such as escape for example. I'm also not so big on pvp that I'd go ahead and spec specifically for it since this is primarily a pve based game.

Extremely Drone-heavy build: http://hellgate.ingame.de/skilltree/engineer/?l=50&s=008130500071117007000070010
Pros: Your drone will likely never die and will be fairly proficient at everything, from melee to ranged to tanking and the survivability of this build is pretty high.
Cons: Your damage output will be significantly low.

The mix and match, scattered points build: http://hellgate.ingame.de/skilltree/engineer/?l=50&s=103130203071307307005030000
Pros: Damage will be pretty high all around and you still have a pretty good drone for tanking and dealing out damage. Similar to the pure drone build but with more priority on dishing out damage.
Cons: You're a jack of all trades, master of none. The drone will still be a good tank but a little bit harder to keep alive with this build.

A drone-less tactical strike build: http://hellgate.ingame.de/skilltree/engineer/?l=50&s=120170013301a00770050001000
Pros: Lots of aoe damage, tons of different damage types and strengths, and the skills that can dish out the damage can be used quicker thanks to the haste bot.
Cons: You are now the enemies target since you don't have a drone, so be ready to run and gun or pop escape if you can't drop the enemies quick enough.

A drone-less, heavy on engi guns & projectile bots build: http://hellgate.ingame.de/skilltree/engineer/?l=50&s=a001700a0001a0000000a000000
Pros: Your bots are gonna deal a really good amount of damage, your gonna gun things down pretty well (both at long range with tac stance than if enemies get close use rapid fire to finish them off), and enemies should be ignited and phased often.
Cons: Very tough build to work with, though simplistic in nature- you pick off enemies from a distance with tact stance, than when they get close you molotov/rapid fire your enemies down.

The party-goers build: http://hellgate.ingame.de/skilltree/engineer/?l=50&s=12310a200331007071050030000
Pros: You can heal your party, increase their attack speed/use rates, and help phase enemies with phase grenades.
Cons: Low damage output, medpak is somewhat unreliable (people have to be near it to be healed), and it can be used to solo but only really shines with a party of people.

Two builds I don't recommend, but people ask for them-
Gun-drone build: http://hellgate.ingame.de/skilltree/engineer/?l=50&s=125100500371077070000030000
Pros: Your drone will be great with guns!
Cons: No melee.

Sword-drone build: http://hellgate.ingame.de/skilltree/engineer/?l=50&s=125100500321007077000030050
Pros: Your drone will be great with melee!
Cons: Weak ranged.

I don't really get why people would want to limit their drone to simply one or the other, I'd rather have him be good at both, but to each his own =p

V. Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How does +minion gear work for the engineer?
A: Well, currently the community isn't entirely sure, but it would appear that any +minion gear only applies to the drone, not the bots, and only works if you have the gear equipped upon entering a combat zone. For instance, say you have +5% health to minion gear and you equip it after entering a zone than summon your drone, you won't see a difference- but if you had it on before zoning you'll notice your drone has more hp. I believe that +%hp works for the drone but it doesn't look like +armor or +dam works. Sorry I couldn't be more definite but unless someone has done extensive testing or gotten a dev to clarify this, it's still kind of up in the air. Edit: It's been clarified by devs taht only +hp works atm and they intend to fix all the +minion items sometime in the future.

Q: What's the first thing I should do when I enter a combat zone?
A: Summon your drone, if you have it, and than your two different kinds of bots.

Q: My drone isn't using x piece of gear or weapon! Why is that?
A: Well, could be a couple reasons- either you don't meet the stat point requirements to use the gear or weapon or you've summoned your drone for the first time since last logging out and you need to re-equip the drone. For some reason when the drone is first constructed during a play session, it will sometimes not use its weapons despite showing them as equipped. You can tell when your drone is doing this because it will be using its default laser attack. Simply un-equip than re-equip the weapons on the drone and he'll start using them again.

Q: My drone died, what do I do!?!?
A: Take a deep breath and look at your options: you can either run, use the escape skill, or try to take the damage until you can get your drone back out. You basically have 20 seconds you have to kill until you can get the drone back out so try to stall for time if it's on a big boss or finish off the enemies yourself if you think you can handle it. Don't forget sprint and escape, they'll help out a ton.

Q: How do I access my drone's stats/equip page?
A: You can access the drone's stats page by holding alt, than right clicking on your drone's portrait, than left clicking on inventory. Alternatively you can also use any of the retrofit skills to open the drone stats/equip page.

Q: What's the best weapon to use for my engi?
A: For the most part, I think gun selection is more of a what fits into your play style kind of thing since there are tons of choices and just about every gun out there handles differently. There are rapid fire machine guns, long range sniper rifles, aoe rocket launchers, chainsaw 'guns', grenade launchers, beam guns, rocket pistols and all kinds of other guns I didn't mention. Just about every single weapon in the game is a viable choice to use- it all depends on what you want from your gun and what best suits how you play. Some guns you find may be of situational use too- for instance you may have a long range gun in one slot, than switch to a short range or aoe-type gun when enemies draw near. The best way to find out what will work for you is to test the different types of guns as you pick them up- when you find a weapon type you really like, keep a look out for rare or better quality versions of that type. Here's a link to a list of weapons that you can equip to get a better idea of what's out there: http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?t=57101

Q: What's the best weapon to use for my drone?
A: The drone handles aoe-type weapons (nova guns, field guns, splash damage guns, flamethrowers), beam weapons, and slow fire-rate guns like sniper rifles the best. Fast-firing guns, like machine guns for example, aren't as effective since the drone won't hold-up on firing to get better weapon accuracy and won't always get up close to the enemies while firing to get the most damage out of the fast guns. Slow-firing weapons, aoe weapons, or guns that lock on targets are generally best for the drone. As for sword choice, a sword with splash damage is probably best for dishing out damage, but if you want your drone to get extra armor from his sword slot, stick wart's leg on it (if you didn't keep it, you can always hang out by the npc trying to harass people for theirs ).

Q: What mods should I use?
A: The answer to the question depends on what you want from your mods so I'd suggest looking through this guide and figuring out what would best benefit your specific weapon or needs- http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?t=22564

Q: What are some of the bonuses I can get on my gear/weapons?
A: There's a good post over here that covers a lot of the different types of enhancements/bonuses that armor and weapons can have on them- http://forums.hellgatelondon.com/showthread.php?t=37458

Q: I just got +x skill for my drone and nothing has changed on my drone, what gives?
A: You have to have the +skill item that gives ranks in the skill equipped or have had points placed into the skill before entering a zone and before constructing a drone- if you already have the drone out nothing will change since those skills are only factored into the drone upon it's first construction. You'd have to go back to a town hub, than zone to a new area to construct a new drone that would than show the proper stats. Some drone skills are only checked on the drone's first construction for a set of zones, amongst those skills are construct drone, the retrofit skills, and master engineer.

This post was edited by Schlag96 on Apr 16 2008 12:58pm

nice , starting a builds sticky?

Just bringing the best material over from there so we can have some kind of organized thing sometime in the future

Such amazing work made here

loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool
du hast den guide aus den hgl forums geklaut
rofl arm

This post was edited by jemandanders on Apr 17 2008 11:15am

Speak english or go hang out here
http://forums.d2jsp.org/index.php?showforum=149

thank you schlag it mite not be ur PERSONAL work but atleast u made it easier on me... altho i hear the eng isnt as good anymore is that just heresay or is it true?

My engy works just fine for me