So You Wanna Be A Dwarf Engineer Do Ya? Complete Class Guide

[Givionte]

Locking because it's outdated

For nice handy PDF version, you can download it from this location...

http://tomeraidersguild.com/wp-conte...engineer21.pdf


Givionte's, So You Want To Be A Dwarf Engineer? Guide
Version 1.0 Last Updated 9/01/08

Welcome to Givionte's career guide for the Dwarf Engineer class, updated 8/19/08. Whether you are
a new engineer, or an experienced vet, I hope this guide will be helpful in not only showing you what
this class is all about, but as a reference point when you are working on spec builds, and for planning
different strategies.
Please note, this guide was written in closed beta, and is the most up to date information currently
available. The Engineer class like many are constantly changing in beta so this guide will see many
changes in coming weeks, so do not expect many things below to stay the same here anytime soon. I will
update the guide as soon as anything changes in beta (that is not protected under the NDA). In the future I
will add links to the Wardb for engineer gear sets, more information on the effects of different skills, and
more commentary on the masteries (once they settle down after the revamp in a few weeks).

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Table of Contents

1. 1. About The Engineer
2. 2. Core Abilities
3. 3. Core Morale Abilities
4. 4. Core Tactics
5. 5. Career Masteries


1. About The Engineer

From Armies of War...

An explosion is the ultimate form of mechanical advantage, so it's no big surprise that the skills of the
Dwarf Engineer extend well along these lines. From guns to grenades, he is a deadly ranged combatant who
will pelt you with lead from afar and blast you to bits as you close in. He excels when fighting multiple
opponents, as many of his explosive attacks are capable of devastating enemies who pack too closely
together. The Engineer offers an outstanding blend of flexible firepower which makes him a truly deadly
and clever combatant.

Engineer Specialty

The only thing more deadly than a simple bomb is a complicated one, or at least that's the way an
Engineer sees things. Using nothing more than the odds and ends they have at hand, Engineers can
create a broad variety of useful objects with various purposes and functions. Some of them are even
safe enough to give to others. From grenades of various types to mechanical weapon upgrades, the
engineer and his allies can use these devices to significantly enhance or supplement their own combat
power.

Playing as an Engineer

As an Engineer, the heart of your job is to rain destruction on the heads of your enemies. Like other
ranged combatants, you prefer to avoid the frontline. However, unlike most other ranged classes, you
reach the peak of your power at a relatively short range. You must maneuver wisely, positioning
yourself so that you can strike at your target without exposing yourself to their attacks. You are a
capable melee fighter, and you can strike at extended range, but your best attacks – grenades,
blunderbusses, artillery bombardment, and more – require a closer position.
Fighting the Engineer
Perhaps the best way to deal with an Engineer is to fight him from afar. If you can effectively out
damage him at long range he will be at a serious disadvantage. If you must get in close, be prepared to
kill him quickly. Unlike most other ranged attackers, the Engineer loses little in terms of effectiveness
in close quarters. He is certainly more vulnerable than a career designed to engage in melee, but this
vulnerability does not make him easy meat.

Engineer Look

• Encased in light weight armor (loaded for bear with tools and widgets)
• Armed to the teeth with guns and grenades (and assorted other gadgets)
• Wields spanners and engineering hammers in melee

From WAR Players Guide...

Engineer: The “Shooter/Hybrid.” “The Engineer is the type of guy who brings a gun to a sword fight.”

Engineer Summary: The Dwarfs first discovered the secrets of black powder, and no one can rival them
when it comes to putting it to good use. Armed with guns, grenades, and gadgets, the Engineers often
prepare traps and ambushes throughout the battlefield before the fight begins, and then quickly dispatch any
surviving enemies from a safe distance.

Engineer Mechanic: Crossbows were good and fine, but nowadays, a gun is better - and if a gun is good,
then an automated self-aiming gyro-mounted gun turret with a cyclic grenade feeder and napalm cannister
is even better yet! An Engineer has gadgets and gizmos to suit any situation, and is virtually an entire battle
line on his own.

Important Skills for the Engineer:

Ballistic Skill – Increases DPS damage, and lowers enemies chance to block or evade. Also increases gun
autoattack damage

Initiative – Increases your chance to evade attacks, detects stealthed enemies, and lowers your chance to be
critically hit.

Weapon Skill – Increases your chance to parry attacks, and penentrate your opponents armor

Wounds – Increases your HP

Ballistic and Initiative were once thought to be the most important skills. Recently testers and dev's even,
found out weapon skill also increases your armor penetration using guns as well. Ballistic is arguably the
most important skill for the engineer, but many other skills effect the class in different ways, so it is worth
experimenting.


2. Core Training

Core abilities can be learned at any Career Trainer, which is located in any chapter location, and also located in Altdorf. Find a Career Trainer on your mini map while in a camp or city with the symbol shown below.

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Each ability costs a small amount of money to be able to learn. Once you learn an ability, it will automatically increase in power as you level, so you will not have to relearn again.

Core Training – Abilities in order by level available

Gun Blast - Level 1 - The bread & butter of this class, you'll use Gun Blast in nearly every situation in the game, it's the most powerful non mastery gun ability. Only downside is the slow "cast" time
Spanner Swipe - Level 1 - Early on in level, you will use this skill all the time since you are always in melee range. In later levels, this skill is fairly useless, though the snare does give you a small chance to escape in melee range, but requires using another skill to ail the enemy.
Flee - Level 1 - The "Oh Crap" spell, or "I can't afford a mount yet" skill. All classes have this ability.
Flashbang Grenade - Level 2 - Flashbang is a spammable grenade, which does very quick damage in a short amount of time, and can slow down a caster significantly.
Gun Turret - Level 3 - This is the famous turret the Engineers are known for. The Gun Turret does single target damage, and does it fairly well. A turret boosts our damage output a lot.
Field Repair - Level 3 - Heal your turret, mainly useful for PvE, where you can control the turret a lot easier.
Friction Burn - Level 4 - The lead-in to to Spanner Swipe, the DOT stacked with other Engineer DOT's can be quite powerful, but obviously this is only useful for NPC's.
Acid Bomb - Level 5 - A powerful point blank AOE debuff, this skill can be very useful if used in rotation with other grenades.
Bombardment Turret - Level 6 - A single target turret, with a chance to toss an AOE grenade. If you go down the Grenadier path, Bombardment is the only turret you will ever need.
Addling Shot - Level 7 - Detaunt, use it, it works, and will save you countless times in PvE.
Blunderbuss Blast - Level 8 - Weak AOE with a cast time. This currently is a skill I will not even place on my skill bar, its that bad.
Incendiary Rounds - Level 8 - A great DOT skill, and will be regularly used. Won't make a tank flinch, but can assist in bringing down a caster or melee dps down.
Fragmentation Grenade - Level 9 - Point blank AOE DOT. The DOT is pretty powerful, and I have seen pretty good success with this grenade.
Flame Turret - Level 9 - This turret has a cool fire effect, and will intimidate the enemy fairly well. It also puts out some pretty good damage. Every engineer will have fun with this turret.
Barbed Wire - Level 10 - One of only 2 skills we have to snare or root, but the chance of it working is not very great. My thought is, if you have to use this skill, well, you might as well expect to die, it means you are already in trouble.
Hip Shot - Level 12 - A nice instant, which gets even better with some tactics, morale, and other abilities later on.
Slow And Steady - Level 18 - You can improve your gun shots a bunch with this skill, but you get a perma snare while "buffed" with it. Word is it this skill might be on its way out the door. It probably won't be missed.
Land Mine - Level 20 - The land mines do great damage, and there is a chance of a long knockdown. It's not very reliable, but if defending, it is worth placing down.
Self-Destruct - Level 25 - Works as intended is the best way to describe it. It don't matter what mastery you use, the Self-Destruct will come in handy.
Signal Flare - Level 30 - About the only use for this skill is for capture the flag scenarios to mark the enemy, and improve the chances he will go down.
Pepper Bomb - Level 35 - The damage is not too heavy, but silencing can work wonders if timed right.
Focused Fire - Level 40 - This will be an extremely important skill for Rifleman. It does lots of damage in a a few seconds. Focused Fire will get tons of use, and deservingly so.

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3. Core Training – Morale Abilities by level available

Morale Abilities are obtained at the Career Trainer as well. You can only have 1 of each rank morale on
your bar at a time. These abilities are your most powerful, and choosing when to use a morale is an
important decision in every battle.

Point-Blank - Level 8 - A powerful basic rank 1 morale gun shot. It works great as a rank 1 morale, because it is a quick shot when you need it, but don't have enough morale to do a cannon smash or Rank 4 nuke.
Unshakable Focus - Level 12 - You can get some huge numbers by using this with High-Explosive Ammo, but I don't ever feel it is worth using if you didn't go down the Rifleman mastery.
Concealment - Level 16 - Saves your butt for 7 seconds, but its difficult to want to choose this skill as a dps class and as a Rank 3, when Cannon Smash is so much cooler, and very powerful.
Focused Mind - Level 20 - A decent rank 2 morale, it can give you a nice little boost during close combat.
Explosive Shots - Level 24 - This Rank 3 morale does put out some good damage, and is fun to use in big packs of players. You can weaken a group fairly easily with this ability.
Autoloader - Level 28 - Engineers rarely run out of Action Points, so I don't recommend this Rank 1 morale, unless you go into the Tinkerer line and drop turrets like a madman.
Armored Plating - Level 32 - I like to use this Rank 2 in dungeons, when there are multiple mobs, or adds. The damage saved really adds up after 20 seconds.
Cannon Smash - Level 36 - Awesome! Not only does the explosion look very powerful, but the damage is extremely powerful, and the armor reduction and knock down on top of that make it a great choice for a Rank 3 morale.
Hail of Doom - Level 40 - An AOE which does as advertised. Enjoy watching the scrolling combat text when attacking a mob with this Rank 4 morale.

Breakdown of Morale choices by rank...

Rank 1
Point-BlankConcealmentAutoloader
Rank 2
Unshakable FocusFocused MindArmored Plating
Rank 3
Explosive ShotsCannon Smash
Rank 4
Hail of DoomScattershot*
Artillery Barrage*
Fling Explosives*

*Denotes skill that requires mastery points to learn See Section VI through VIII for these morale abiltities


4. Core Training – Tactics by level available

Tactics are learned at the career trainer. Depending on your level, you can only have a certain amount of tactics
on your bar at a time. You can have multiple tactic bars, and switch between each of them when out of combat.

Stoutness of Stone - Level 11 - This tactic is not for an Engineer, and no reason to use it. It is rare I get stunned or knocked down.
Expert Skirmisher - Level 13 - Ok tactic, but usually I can find something better to place on the tactics bar.
Reinforced Casing - Level 15 - Turrets need all the HP they can get since they are super easy to take down, so if you go down the Tinkerer path, this is a good tactic choice.
Stubbornness - Level 17 - Gives decent resistance to corporeal, but I prefer my tactics to improve damage or abilities, not keep me alive slightly longer.
Steady Aim - Level 19 - A great tactic, will give a good boost to the ballistic skill.
Hand-Crafted Scope - Level 21 - If you have a real fast gun, this can come in handy in situations where you don't expect to be in close range.
Ancestral Inheritance - Level 23 - Who needs armor, I carry around grenades on my shoulders and wield a gun!
Clever Recovery - Level 25 - I rarely, if ever have a problem with AC.
Concussive Mine - Level 27 - If you use lands mine quite a bit, this tactic can be quite fun.
Pierce Defenses - Level 29 - Considering we are supposed to be the class defending, this tactic won't ever be really useful to us.
Steady Hand - Level 31 - Considering I rarely get set back, not sure if it is really that useful for Engineers.
Rune of Forging - Level 33 - This works well in RvR and PvE. Definitely a good tactic to put on the short list.
Proximity Alarm - Level 35 - Comes in handy in scenarios where you might be the one defending a flag. Those pesky Witch Elfs can take down a Engineer easily if caught off guard.
Tangling Wire - Level 37 - A sweet tactic that makes Barbed Wire more viable. This is one I put on at least 1 of of my tactic bars depending on this situation.
Coordinated Fire - Level 39 - This is good for capture the flag or murderball scenarios, but that's about it. Place it on a tactic bar for scenarios.

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5. Mastery Training

Engineers, like all classes, have 3 mastery lines available they can use to differentiate themselves from
other Engineers, and to compliment their favorite playstyle. Each mastery specializes in something the
others do not, and will boost any core skills under that path. You can have points in multiple masteries, so it
is worth experimenting with different combinations.

Engineer Masteries Summary:

Path Of The Rifleman This path focuses on long-range attacks, and taking your time with carefully aimed
precision shots. A master of this path prefers to stand back away from the hectic front lines of battle, and
dispatch his enemies quickly and cleanly from behind defensive cover.

Path Of The Grenadier This mastery is primarily focused on grenades and bombs, powerful explosives
which may be quickly tossed into the middle of a fray to wreak havoc on enemies. While their effective
range may be shorter than a gun's - after all, Dwarf arms aren't exactly build to throw for distance -
grenades make up for this through sheer stopping power and swift arming times.

Path Of The Tinkerer A specialist in this path is concerned mainly with his deployable contructs,
preferring to fight from near the safety of his turrets while he lays out his foes with swings of his heavy
steel wrench. Master tinkerers have also been known to use additional deployable devices above and
beyond turrets as well, and many are the Engineers who've been banned for life from a blacksmith's forge
after trying to test and improve the heat thresholds of land mines.

Path of the Rifleman Breakdown

Skills Boosted Under this path:

Gun BlastHip ShotGun TurretIncendiary RoundsFocused Fire
Mastery Path, Start from Bottom to top...

Scattershot - Like all Rank 4's, it does heavy damage but you have to debate whether it is worth having compared to the core Rank 4 morale you get for free.
14
High-Explosive Ammo - This buff to your gun skills is pretty awesome, and is a skill you need to use everytime it pops up.
12
Quick Reloader - Meh, not anything worth having.
10
Snipe - Strong, with a longer cast, but with High-Explosive Ammo, its worth having.
8
Hollow-Points - If you are going to get Snipe, then it is a no brainer to get this tactic.
6
Crack Shot - This shot does good damage, and the disarm will make a marauder or witch elf cry, so yes, it is worth it.
4
Stopping Power - As noted, a short distance. I don't think it is strong enough of a tactic.
2
1

Path of the Grenadier Breakdown

Skills Boosted under this path:

Flashbang GrenadeBombardment TurretPepper BombAcid BombFragmentation Grenade
Mastery Path, Start from Bottom to top...

Artillery Barrage - Like all mastery rank 4's, you have to decide whether you want this pretty nuke over the Core morale.
14
Phosphorous Shells - Awesome channeling nuke, that does superior damage. If you go Grenadier, this is the obvious, must have skill.
12
Bandolier - We don't have problems with AC, so no to this tactic.
10
Concussion Grenade - A good grenade to mix in with the others, but its knockback is nothing special.
8
Throwing Arm - If you are going to be a grenade throwing machine, this tactic is a must have.
6
Fire Bomb - It's not too powerful, but is worth getting only so that you don't get bored spamming the same grenades over and over.
4
Extra Powder - This benefits the 2 skills a little, but questionable if worth it.
2
1

Path of the Tinkerer Breakdown

Skills Boosted under this path:

Spanner SwipeFriction BurnLand MineBlunderbuss BlastFlame Turret
Mastery Path, Start from Bottom to top...

Fling Explosives - Nice self AOE, this is probably worth puring the points in Tinkerer for, but the rest of the line cant match it.
14
Bugman's Best - It's effect does hardly anything, don't waste the point on it other then to have a unique skill to get stares and oohs and aahs.
12
Tracer Rounds - Nice tactic actually, the crits can fly when using this tactic. Hard part is trying to stay within 20 feet, that is hard to do, except in PvE, but too many crits, and you could easily get aggro.
10
Steam Vent - Does wonderful damage, and when combined with Self-Destruct, the damage can be massive.
8
Runes of Warding - It's ok for PvE, don't know if it makes it worth going down this path for.
6
Ammo Compartment - If you are dropping turrets and using heavy AC skills, you might need this, but I just don't see that happening.
4
Well-Oiled Machine - Instant turrets are awesome, and this is the only reason I ever put points in Tinkerer, to get this one awesome tactic.
2
1

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This will get you started with the Engineer class, but there is much more to learn. Soon, I'll have some links to some strategy and tactic guides for those who want to push their Engineer to the max, or how to best play them in RvR or PvE.

[Givionte]

Reserved for future additions and information pertaining to the guide!

[Dram]

Interestin' guide laddie!

[Gompers]

Good guide, I would love it if you took some of the Impressional bias out of the skill descriptions. Barbed Wire is far more powerful then you make it out to be.

[armoafro]

nice guide! probably rolling an engy for release so it was a good read.

[AngryDrunkDwarf]

Cool guide. But I think you underestimate the Bugman's Best ability a lil too much.

It heals ALL nearby allies. Obviously if there are just a few people around that's not really great, but in large scale combat with a lot of allies around, that's a nice ability. Though I think the Tinkerer spec line does need to be buffed, hopefully it will be, it's the path that interests me most.

[Givionte]

Originally Posted by AngryDrunkDwarf

Cool guide. But I think you underestimate the Bugman's Best ability a lil too much.

It heals ALL nearby allies. Obviously if there are just a few people around that's not really great, but in large scale combat with a lot of allies around, that's a nice ability. Though I think the Tinkerer spec line does need to be buffed, hopefully it will be, it's the path that interests me most.

It doesn't do enough, is my opinion. It barely makes a nudge in the health bars, and don't feel it is worth going that far in the Tinkerer tree for. If they kept it the way it is, it needs to be lowered to the bottom of the tree, where I would recomend it much more.

The Tinkerer line is expected to be completely revamped, so we'll see where they go with this skill.

[AngryDrunkDwarf]

Originally Posted by Givionte

It doesn't do enough, is my opinion. It barely makes a nudge in the health bars, and don't feel it is worth going that far in the Tinkerer tree for. If they kept it the way it is, it needs to be lowered to the bottom of the tree, where I would recomend it much more.

The Tinkerer line is expected to be completely revamped, so we'll see where they go with this skill.

I agree that it needs to be buffed, the whole Tinkerer tree does. I'm hoping it will be, because that's the spec I wanna try out most.

[MagicHobo]

No offence, but I think you underestimate alot of the shorter range knockbacks and snares the class has.

Your a defensive RDPS class, if your not defending some kind of node or keep (where knockback would keep them away from these said objectives) then you should help defending your other squishier ranged comrades.

[grymn]

Pretty sure Engineers don't get "Spine Fling" as an ability...

[chaotica15]

Nice guide, but there's a bug under morale abilities you posted a squig herder ability under a rank 2 morale ability

[Abedeus]

Good guide, made me reconsider if I should start OB as Order for Eng or Destruction for Squiggy Herder ;d

[Givionte]

The bug with that Rank 2 morale is an issue with WARDB. I'm going to send a e-mail over to them to see if it is tagged incorrectly. The Rank 2 morale is called Focused Mind.

[slappy]

loved playing engie but the only thing i didnt like about him was the lack of AoE from the grenadier tree. Surpisingly half the grenades were not AoE which doesnt really make too much sense. Acid bomb and firebomb are your bread and butter abilities and are a blast to use.

I also am not sure about a few things with the engineer. I have not been able to play the beta for a while.

- Do all your grenades benefit from weapon skill armor penetration, and balistics skill to increase their damage? From what i saw they did not which greeatly dissapointed me because if your a grenader your not going to be using your gun much except for your autoatatck which automatically is put on. Your grenades have such short cooldowns you will never be waiting for your next atatcik really. Only gun skill i was using was the DoT that just added more DoT to my target.

I feel this is a mistake to do because it basically makes grenaders go for nothing but initiative and toughness because half of the attributes dont effect him. Grenades dont benefit from weapon skill or ballistics which basically screws all engineers over.

If i am wrong please enlighten mee for i am greatly dissapointed. As a grenader you hardly use your gun abilities which benefit from weapons skill and ballistics 2 of your most important things.

Also, with the tactic, grenades have a 98 foot range (2 less than gun attacks) and dont do more damage the closer you are without that tactic expert skirmisher, but i would rather be twice the distance away and closer to the mages and healers than halway between the dps and range to be taken down by a sneaky dps or increase m,y chances of being FF by the nukers.

Overall the engy was the most fun i had in beta but the issues above reallt ruined a part of it for me. They will make people go gun spec because it will always do the most dps with half the grenades NOT being AoE and the lack of support your abilities get from ballistics and weapon skill.

[Malavar]

Take note that my observations here are from the last couple of days playing an 11th level Engineer in RVR. So I'm not sure if some of your original observations are outdated due to class/ability changes since the beta. Also note that I love playing very aggressive characters, so I'm not sitting back in a defensive role lobbing grenades from afar but instead charging back and forth from the front lines to help my realm mates there.

Green Acid/Gas Debuff - I dispense these like candy wherever I go, even if I'm not engaging in the fight in that area. As I've noted with other class abilities (BW fireball, Zealot Purple Gas DoT), any attack that has a significant visual effect can psychologically scare your opponents and keep them back. I've tossed these at an enemy group inching forward and they immediately retreated five feet or so because of it. Go figure. It works so I use it because it's instant.

Blunderbuss/Shotgun - I was dumbstruck at how effective this is in RVR. Yes it doesn't do that much dmg but you can get off a volley of shots fairly quickly. Just yesterday, I don't know how many enemy tanks I helped kill because they were in a standoff with our tanks, nose to nose. I just ran forward behind our tanks and got off about four or five rapid shots with my shotgun against their three or four tanks and that's all it took for our team to knock out at least a couple of their tanks. I mean I've seen 10 enemy players squished together in a extremely tight group and I've hit most of them with this shot. Morale of the story: every little bit of dmg helps, especially if it's hitting many people at once! It also really scares the hell out of a group of Zealot healers when you can surprise them from behind with it. Again it's the psychological effect of the loud shot going off as well. Hoo-yah!

Fire Grenade - Without a doubt this attack is probably the deadliest on a single target (at least at my level). Doing PVE, I spam these out on a monster to drop them quickly. And yet I've found against a well healed enemy tank, it still isn't enough (probably because standing that close to the front for that long is a death sentence for me, since there is a 1s cast for them). Thus I reserve it more for medium to light armor enemies (i.e. marauder stupid enough to rush forward towards our group).

Morale Knockback - I LOVE this attack. Again I often use it aggressively. So I'll run forward to a lone enemy tank holding their front line, rush behind him then punt him towards our group, thus away from his healers, usually letting us drop him in a few seconds. Or if there are Gryphon Marksmen nearby, I will punt him towards them then hit my Flee to race back behind our lines. Quite hilarious.

Barbed Wire Snare - It sucks that this ability isn't more effective and you're right, when using it defensively, it's almost a waste of time because you're pretty much dead. To make your death more enjoyable for your enemy, turn towards them and use the /cower emote. They'll get a hoot as they kill you. Anyways, that's why I try to utilize this snare more offensively. If a couple of enemy are trying to get away from our group because they might be at half health, I drop the snare to entrap them while our group catches up. I'll even snare them and punt one of them back to our group with my Morale Knockback ability.

Spanner Swipe - Ya more than anything I find it useful in slowing down an enemy who is chasing after one of my realm mates. Gives them the chance to get away from the enemy. Also decent as a quick finishing attack on a low health enemy. But ya, only effective in certain situations.

Incendiary Round - Highly effective finishing shot on a wounded enemy because of the high DoT and long range. Thus if an enemy is nearly dead and running away, just fire one of these and with five seconds or so, you'll hear the ching as he drops dead safely behind his lines.

Turrents - Originally I thought turrents for Engineers were their primary dmg source. Then later after playing them a while, I realized turrents were nothing more than an annoyance / harassment for the enemy and most of my dmg came from me. So if the enemy is smart, they'll knock them out immediately. If not, they'll work like an ongoing DoT that can add up significant dmg over time. Again nothing different than other pets in other classes. They're more meant as harassers to keep the enemy distracted on trying to take them out, while you and your team can focus on taking out the enemy.

Initiative Skill - In terms of what skills to get, it obviously varies depending upon your play style. Since I play this guy very aggressively, up close to the front lines, I'm deciding to focus more of my skill points on Initiative to bump up my dmg avoidance. If you'd rather sit back and be a sniper, then ya go for the ballistic skill more. I still may add a few points later in Ballistic and/or Weapon Skill (to help my offense abilities, especially against tanks) but have to see how it plays out.