Are you a new Engineer looking for a bit of fighting advice, and my recommended Mastery spec as you level? Check this out!
As you level, in Grenadier:
Level 21) Sticky Bomb, skipping extra powder. It’s an extra DOT that explodes after its duration for an AOE DD or if the target dies… this helps DPS considerably.
Level 24) Go up to Throwing Arm and slot the tactic alongside Steady Aim (the ballistic skill tactic). This makes grenades have a 98ft range vs. 65ft normal (nukes in general are 100ft), so they can become part of your main damage rotation without being deep in the danger zone of nukes-ville during combat.
Level 27) Go up to Strafing Run and train it. This is a slow line DD that hits pretty hard, but most importantly, is a short knockback that does NOT trigger immunity, meaning you can then use a turret self-destruct knockdown, or a knockback grenade, to further CC the enemy. As with all knockbacks, it knocks down monsters.
Level 33) In Rifleman, get Crack Shot. It’s an invaluable tool, and again, strafing run then a disarm = nice combo. I often if jumped by a witch elf or whatnot will pop strafing run to knock them back, and while they’re in midair throw on Crack Shot (disarm) to begin the attack. It also helps to protect a healer or whatnot that’s in trouble from any melee’r, and gives a HUGE boost against enemies such as the Squig Herder (who I usually throw an Acid Bomb dot grenade/debuff, then a flashbang grenade to interrupt whatever he’s building, followed by the disarm and a quick burst with hip shot/focused fire to try to finish him off or get him to a critically low health level before he can retaliate).
Level 38) Napalm Grenade in Grenadier. It is a 20 foot “square” AOE on the ground that grows in strength every 10 seconds (doubling in power). It is a great tool to force someone to move, or try to block off a corner that you think they may try to use to block LOS. Note that the first tick of damage is instant upon landing, so it functions as a makeshift DD as you set it if you’re doing it on top of the enemy’s spot or close enough for it to touch them. In addition, it is a huge DPS tool in PVE, and benefits from Unshakeable Focus as all abilities do once you pop it, even though it’s already in-progress.
Level 40) Finish off Grenadier’s mastery points (you can’t train the Morale 4 until RR40 but I can hardly remember many times I have used that, it’s more for the DPS boost and napalm grenade priority in RVR (highest level napalm in a spot deals damage, anything else is rendered inert as they don’t stack with other Engineers)).
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A few quick tips:
1) Grenades take a second to actually “land” and do their damage. Thus, the double damage Morale 2 ability can be used immediately after any medium-long range grenade throw to apply double damage to that grenade, and have 7 seconds after to continue using quick abilities for double damage. I often debuff someone with Acid Bomb (dot/corp debuff), throw a flashbang grenade at a caster, punch Morale 2 (the nade then lands for double damage), fire off a Hip Shot, then Focused Fire, for a huge damage output in a very brief time. By the end of that most people are nearly dead if they survive. I then throw a quick firebomb followed by another flashbang or knockback as the situation demands.
2) You can combine most knockbacks with a root or melee snare. Due to lag, if you punch say the knockback grenade then hit a root as you run away, it 99% of the time catches them with the root as they fly and you’re running away, making a rather lethal crowd control combo. You can do this with any combination that doesn’t trigger immunity with eachother.
3) SPANNER SWIPE… it’s the melee snare so long as any hex is on the target (aka any of your dot’s). Use it even if you’re snared, after a couple of seconds, because most people fail to reapply a snare to you until the first one wears off, giving you a few seconds of faster runspeed than them and possibly a full escape. You can often hit a knockback grenade with the snare, or snare then knockback-root, and really mess people up. I sometimes will purposely manuever at an angle into a melee’r to snare them as I play “chicken” with them, then knock em back and unload. Don’t be like me and forget half the time that you have it… it is a fight turner!
How soon will you update your blog? I’m interested in reading some more information on this issue.