If Engie skills don't stack, why have 2+ Engineers?

[kamikazees]

The new changes just made the game a LOT harder, especially on us Engies. Everyone loves 1 Engie, but the problem now is that it seems a waste to let 2 in your group. Skills like Empathy, Protection, and the stuns from Suppression and Pain don't stack, so the second Engineer becomes kind of dead weight except for using Transferrence every 10 seconds (which also only heals on the second tick now). Am I missing something?

[Flowman]

first engineer dies. Now what?

[Prest87]

first engineer dies. Now what?
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooo

[kamikazees]

Surely we did not make a character and spend the time to level/equip her so we can prevent wipes and walks of shame, as embarassing as those are.

[bronislav84]

first engineer dies. Now what?So basically, any party that doesn't have me in it needs two? I see.

But seriously you only need 1 if they're good.

[Zbooo]

Umm for the extra heals, now I'm Numa Prime you NEED 2 Engis to keep up with the loss of health.

[bronislav84]

Or there's that.

[kamikazees]

Umm for the extra heals, now I'm Numa Prime you NEED 2 Engis to keep up with the loss of health.
Empathy doesn't stack, so where are the extra heals coming from? Transference?

[mycroftxxx]

Empathy doesn't stack, so where are the extra heals coming from? Transference?

Note: I don't think you actually need more than one engineer, but…

One engineer cannot be everywhere. If the group is scattering around the area, an engineer will miss some toons with their Empathy skills, and then you're stuck waiting for the cooldown.

[Zbooo]

One you get full 25 gear then an engi can solo heal a whole party. That's just me in my experience.

[WhoIsThis]

Surely we did not make a character and spend the time to level/equip her so we can prevent wipes and walks of shame, as embarassing as those are.

The way things are going, we might have.

Engineers appear to be pure support units. Their effective damage output is inferior to that of the commando. This is because when you cast spells like pain or transferrence, you are forced to switch targets as that target dying means the spell is cut off. Usually a team member kill of that target anyways. Only on bosses is the full effect seen.

This can be contrasted to the PL enchantress which has both support and formidable offensive skills. Now I'm not advocating that the SL engineer become as similar to int mage as operative is to birds, but they are in serious need of a buff.

For now, it seems engineers have become weaker with each rebalance. Let's just say that engineers are likely to remain the least popular class for the foreseeable future.

[Azurkray]

I thought it was just "Protection" that was unstackable, I might be wrong though...

[Raulur]

Good luck beating the Guardian without 2 engineers. Somehow I always end up with aggro against him. I can hold my own for a while (dura-armor implant), but eventually I die and need a rez too. Two engineers are always better than 1. We aren't talking Outer Limits here, the maps get much more difficult as you progress.

Now commandos, you dont really need more than 1 if the 1 if good.

[mycroftxxx]

Good luck beating the Guardian without 2 engineers.

I did him once with one commando, three operatives, and one engineer (me). Seemed to go okay.

[dollarbill]

As long as the engineer doesn't get aggro from him, one is ok just make sure Ur stocked on stimpacks :)

[bronislav84]

Protection needs to retime each other instead of having no effect. They seem to have lowered the time it lasts by about half now, too.

[kamikazees]

You only need 2 engies to beat guardian if one is not doing his job. Empathy is active 6 out of every 8 seconds. The other engie cannot even use Empathy at all during that time. In fact, the only additional healing he can do is Transference, once every 10 seconds. At least I assume Transference stacks. Empathy, Protection and the Revive buffs don't.

It might be claimed that a second engie can use Empathy during the 2 second cooldown gap.... an entire character slot for someone to fill a 2 second gap?

And it gets worse if the other engie has less than maxed skills, which we are seeing now (with Protection mostly). If he fires off Protection before me, my maxed skill is useless to the team for 2 minutes while my team is whipped on by baddies.

I just want to do my job. Help me help you! Thanks for the good and clean discussion.