Outcast Engineer, A Suggestion

[Twist]

So I was playing earlier today and talking with an online community I’m part of and we got on the topic of Outcast Engineer. The topic mainly circled around the fact that OE is thoroughly lackluster and needs a rework. Some of the issues came up like the fact that he doesn’t actually have a real passive, as his passive is linked to his minigun. When you consider that every other class has a passive that actively aids in gameplay for individuals or even teams (Paced Strikes, Dance of Seasons, Witch-Hunt), this passive “Bardin Builds Pressure but only when you -actively- do it yourself” is fairly weak.

So here’s the suggestion: Consider building pressure a part of his minigun career skill as opposed to a passive so that you can free up the passive for… PISTON POWER! Remove it as a talent and make it his passive where every 15 (or even 20 seconds), the pistons in his armor fully level up to deliver a blow with massive stagger. It makes sense for his character (as the pistons are in his armor, not the weapon) and makes him a far more valuable member of the team.

TL;DR: Make Piston Power Outcast Engineer’s Passive ability, and combine “Build Pressure” with the Crank Gun ultimate to make OE a more valuable member of the team.

Whaddya think?

[Incandescent]

I think that’s probably a step in the right direction?

idk Engi still has a lot of problems beyond that

[alsozara]

I like the idea. As @Incandescent said a step in the right direction though not nearly enough on its own.

Changes to Crank Gun and Pressure have been talked about ad nauseum, but would like to add some similar, non crank gun related suggestions. These are meant to be things that could be added alongside your Piston Power suggestion.

Utility Belt Perk additionally makes you start the level with 1 bomb on you, type you get is random.

Bombardier talent additionally gives 10-15% dupe chance on grenade throw. Stacks with grenadier.

Reasoning for these two changes is to make a build possibility where utility belt is impactful, whereas currently it often doesn’t really do anything on higher difficulties, as you rarely accumulate enough bombs that it comes into play.

If anything I’m concerned that might be a bit much, with a good RNG roll escalating it into silly levels, so as always feedback very welcome.

[Incandescent]

I just want his melee to feel good tbh

he’s a dude with a big, steam-powered mechanical arm and his melee attacks are on par with ranger vet (worse actually, if you include things like last resort, exhilarating vapours, ale drops, potion drops etc. ). Meanwhile his ranged is also worse than ranger vet AND he has less utility too…also less durability.

idk I feel like Engineer has the capacity to work great as a hybrid-melee heavy type of character with still weaknesses similar to what he’s got at his core (needing support to get good minigun uptime, micro-managing stacks, susceptible to spikes in pressure) but with rewards for getting passed those weaknesses that actually matter

right now the only reward you get for overcoming Engi’s weaknesses is a glorified flamethrower

[TmanDW]

I agree that Engi is very gimmicky and an almost one-dimensional class where you basically are a minigun on legs, and which can only reach its highest potential with a team that adjust its strategy to you.

Where my opinion differs with most people, however, is that I don’t consider that a bad thing per se. Especially for an optional shake-things-up-for-a-change DLC class. One can deride the minigun as a “glorified flamethrower”, but the reality is that it is is very powerful in all official game difficulties. And Engi does offer super unique gameplay for this game, which increases variety.

Another fear I have for the hypothetical situation where the Engineer gets buffed / changed into a more hybrid melee class is that it’s going to step on the toes of Ranger, and create a situation where people compare him to Ranger too much since they occupy the same niche and call him either “pay to win” or “pay to lose”, dependant on their relative overall power.

If you look at what Engi and Ranger are supposed to be lorewise, it makes waaaay more sense for Ranger to be the melee-ranged hybrid class than Engi. Engi being a heavy firepower team-dependant kind of class fits his indentity well. Ranger should be way more tough and melee capable than he currently is, not Engi.

[Incandescent]

yeah I guess we could go the other way and make RV the hybrid melee but that would mean reworking 2 classes at once