I’ve played the engineer for a bit today and I am of two minds. On one hand it feel fun taking out the big gun and throwing death to all in front of me but on the other it feels like I am one big easy target. All other careers when their abilities are used they feel instant and they feel like they are able to get you out of a sticky situation in a hurry. The new engineer ability feels like it is better used at the start of a big brawl rather than in the sticky situation. Having your ranged weapon out in the middle of a swarm is always tricky. It leaves you open, even if you dodge you can get snagged on something or someone. Since the engineer just came out this new style of ability might have a learning curve and with time it would shine but from a quick first look it feels 50/50. Having said this, the engineer has a lot of positives. The weapons that he brings hammer/axe and pistol are scary and even though I haven’t played around with all his talents they seem fun. But I’d like to only focus on his ability.
Having said that. One thing that I wish would be a bit different is his talent Gromril-Plated Shot. This is the one that i’ve used the most and tbh I wouldnt mind if it did more damage and to balance the damage increase make it fire slower and waste more of the ability bar.
I’d like to post the build i’ve been using to better explain my playstyle so far.
I’ve completed all the Helmgart levels on legend with the engineer. I feel he’s mediocre. The Cog hammer is great, maybe a bit too good. It’s like X sword but with better mobility and speed. The master work pistol is fun and functional, but i think handgun is a better pick for most builds and classes. I tried out the ranger vet with cog hammer and masterwork pistol and it was fun, and in my opinion rv is much better than the engineer. The crank gun just doesn’t do it for me. The micromanagement is annoying and the payoff when you fire it up is underwhelming. Smoking Chaos warriors from distance with the armour piercing talent felt good initially but the novelty quickly wore off. I mostly use the ‘no wind-up’ talent and use the crank gun for hordes and bosses now; but, like you say, being static and vulnerable while you fire feels bad. On top of that, really what’s the point of the mini gun? If I want to control hordes, I’d just take the drakefire cannon and if I want to kill bosses I’d just play bounty hunter, shade, or even slayer. Also, minigun is so inaccurate that it’s useless at range. Having said all that, I have always hated the drakefire cannon, so maybe I’m not the target audience for the engineer. Undoubtedly he is my least favourite of all the 17 classes, but I salute Fatshark for giving us something different and thinking outside the box.
I tried drakefire pistols with the hunter trait and ‘guaranteed crit every 4 shots’ talent on engineer. This was a fun way to get a predictable 25% power boost, but then you rely on the crank gun for sniping at distance and it’s pretty useless at that even with the armour piercing talent. I think I might try a Drakefire cannon Engineer build next just so I am forced to remain stationary whenever I use ranged.
It’s really only good for hordes, plague monk packs, and monsters. The crank microgame I’ve tried to do alone and in groups, but it’s a little too much work so I’ve gotten in the habit of using the crank-and-forget talent and just treating the gun like a standard ult. I guess if the crank animations were faster it’d be easier to use the gun as the game sort of suggests (that being bursts to thin out hordes before repositioning and cranking to maintain high recharge).
The anti-armor talent is very hard to use, but I don’t hate it either. It does bupkis to Chaos Warriors, takes a bit before it starts shooting and still manages to bleed through ult charge as fast as the rapid fire ult. But I’ve been giving it a fair chance in a weird Flamethrower build where the anti-armor ult is essentially a less accurate handgun to use against specials. It’s more difficult to use than just playing dwarf normally with a handgun, but it’s new and it’s fun to me.
After playing a bit more with engineer when linking Gromril-Plated Shot with Armour Piercing Slugs the damage increases significantly. At least strong enough to take down multiple CW with a full bar or one CW with about 1/4 bar (legendary). The playstyle is still very different to other careers and I’m still figuring it out.
