Outcast Engineer Rework ideas

Fatshark Lounge
1

Just a few suggestions to make OCE a little more competitive and Fun to play.

New passive: Ablative Armour
Every 5 seconds Bardin gains a stack of Damage Reduction. Stacks up to 5 times. Each stack reduces damage taken by 5%. Taking damage removes a stack. Every 5 seconds when at 5 stacks, Bardin gives a stack of Ablative Armour to the nearest ally. Ally stacks up to 3.

LV 10 talents
Scavenged shot removed Replaced with-
Piston Power: melee power increased by 10% or 15% against armoured. Bardins heavy attacks with melee weapons gain increased stagger (enough to knock down a storm vermin/ stumble a chaos warrior but not stagger a monster)

Lv 25 talents
Piston Power and Ablative Armour removed
New talents
Integrated Forge:
Every 120 seconds Bardin generates a random bomb in his inventory, holding a max of 3 bombs. When holding 3 bombs Bardin will spawn a random bomb at his feet every 120 seconds.

Morgrim’s Gifts:
Bardin can only hold 1 bomb in his inventory. Any Bomb picked up by Bardin is replaced by Morgrim’s Bomb (chaos wastes boon). This bomb cannot be traded with allies.

LV 30 Talents
Gromril-Plated Shot buffed
Rate of fire increased by 5%
Shots explode on impact for 30% of initial damage.

2

Being able to permanently heavy stagger a CW with heavies just off a talent is a tad bit too much…and in my opinion, being able to smack a monster back with a big heavy is what makes piston fun :sweat_smile:

Not better than ablative, but fun!

Way too overpowered, that bomb was made for being able to blow oneself outa chaos wastes madness and would just trivialize normal content.

While i am not against the talent getting buffed, this particular instance would just make it too overpowered since it gains AOE clear ontop of armor clear.

3

Hm, I think such posts would be better placed in the feedback forum section. Not sure if there is a difference in visibility or perception.

Also personally, I have yet to see a good reason why Engineer would need any buff for content up to (and including) Cataclysm. So I don’t see why he should get another passive, especially a defense one considering that he is more or less the sole career which at least halfway fits the description of a glass cannon and which is a nice pace of change of most other stuff.

That said, I like that the level 25 talents have their own thematic now. It is something I would like to see for more careers. If it has to be bombs though, not sure. Especially not with the available choices here. Morgrim’s Gift - a non-friendly-fire-causing bomb that nukes half the screen is simply the best choice. Always. Without question. Especially, since you have not mentioned a restriction of Bardin not being able to get bombs passed. So, you basically have four Morgrim’s bombs available at best times.

As said, I consider OE in a very good spot balance-wise, and also interesting and fun to play. I am not completely against some changes though. I think I saw one suggestion for changes in some Reddit Post which were mostly sensible and well thought out. The gist was something like his passive bonuses increases gradually with each stack, and stacks are lost one by one. But as compensation stacks would also be significantly shorter than now. It would make it a bit harder to stay at top all the time but in average would have some bonus available at most times. It would basically remove the binary state of his passive bonuses as they are at the moment.

2 Likes
4

Ablative Armour becoming a Passive would 100% open up that row, but I’m quite happy with Piston Power and Bombardier. I would much rather see a new offensive Talent that would help Grudgeraker and maybe improve Drakefires shotgun attacks.

The two things that would make him better, imo, are changes to cranking and 100% Max Ammo Capactity Passive, rather than the 50% he has currently. This is what caps him off compared to RV, with the same guns. He has no ammo sustain, and guns that eat your entire build.

As for ‘competitive’, the Flamethrower build with a Shield and Piston Power is viable on things like Tzeentch/Vanguard. You can compete with top damage and can be an almost invincible solo bunker due to Stagger+THP. LCC is also a really good choice for this build.

None of his other builds compete though. Masterwork/Grudgeraker/Handgun run out of ammo, and he also doesn’t gain reload speed. This is actually where I may accept explosive rounds to make up for low ammo.

I don’t think his Crank Gun Talents need any changes. Just the Cranking itself. Maybe even half the amount of Cranks needed. Changes to Cranking would improve all of them, and make GPS and LCC more viable. I think GPS would likely become meta then.

Superior Gaskets is just the least hassle to play with. I think the ‘Pressure is not lost over time’ mechanic should become baseline, with the effects based around however many stacks instead.

Making Crit% stack with Leading Shots could also work to maintain ammo. At the moment, it just uses up too much to be useful. I only really use it for Hunter on Flamethrower, and Boss damage with Masterwork and the Crank Gun.

If I was to rank his guns with optimal builds:

Drakegun: S+
Trollhammer Torpedo: S
Masterwork Pistol: A- (AMMO)
Handgun: B (AMMO+ RELOAD SPEED)
Drakefire Pistols: B (NO UMMPPHHH) - Can be used to proc Hunter for a mediocre Melee+Pistols build
Grudgeraker: C (AMMO+ RELOAD SPEED)

Problems:
Consider the fact that he has no reload speed bonuses, on top of having to Crank all of the time. You also have to spam weapon switch, while landing headshots for ammo sustain.

  • Ammo
  • Reload Speed
  • Cranking
  • Unique interactions with guns
5

The main thing I want to add to this topic is that I STRONGLY lament the loss of scavenged shot or whatever the name was of his previous talent that got deleted when Trollhammer was added. I’d trade Trollhammer’s existence to get it back in a heart beat TBH. Immediate double shots with handgun, or just avoiding reloading altogether if keeping it to a single shot at a time. Heck even being able to triple shot grudge was incredibly fun if still not terribly ammo efficient.

To me besides the general excessive micro with cranking, what he really lacks nowadays is something to genuinely differentiate his ranged kit and allow unique play with different weapons. The old scavenged shot wasn’t terribly strong but it did provide that in combination with the leading shot+Hunter drakegun build. I just really really want something along those lines back. I get what you’re saying @Kitten but to me +100% ammo just wouldn’t cut it. It’s not interesting and it doesn’t meaningfully impact how you actually use the weapons, you just get to use them more often and have better scrounger breakpoints.

Unfortunately I struggle to think of something that wouldn’t break trollhammer in all likelihood, so thanks again to that dumb weapon. I kinda wish it was straight locked to IB. Unfortunately in his current state all interest I could have in playing around with Engi has pretty much evaporated. Crank gun alone isn’t really a fun enough mechanic to carry the enjoyment factor of the class on its own.

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