our problem or theirs

[GigaBits]

I want to take a minute to talk about suppression, as I feel it is an undervalued skill for those looking into less support and more control oriented engineers. The common consensus has been that it is mostly a solo skill b/c in groups it gets wasted by the group attacking the mezzed targets. It has been noted by others that their are better ways to spend your points and I do not disagree completely.

However, as the game is filling up I am finding myself more and more often being needed in other capacities than heal spamming and the occasional armor buff. So my thought is that we( meaning engineers) should not look at ourselves to blame for others breaking the mez. Yes, I said it, suppression is a GREAT group skill if the group will play with us more effectively.

Like any other support/utility class timing is important. You should expect if you run in first and mez the whole group the commando behind you is gonna scatter them and break mez. You should expect if you mez a boss to have wasted that mana. But timed accordingly, with adds at a boss fight, or those seperate groups that run in from another direction, mez can keep the heat off until you and your party can take care of the immediate threat. One example that comes to mind is in numa prime if someone accidently stray to far and pulls a group from somewhere else...Suppress those punks and turn your attention back to your group for healing and/or some indiscriminate dps. Shoot, you could even lay on a quick pain to grab the aggro from your teammate and off-tank the secondary group while your team finishes up the first. All the better with 2 engineers because the other one can worry about heals.

Anyway, thanks for reading and feel free to let me know what you all think;)

EDIT: after re-reading and talking to some people(thanks peacemaster) I want to clarify that I don't think any one class is playing "wrong" just that all of us should be playing more cooperatively, not just smashing our skill buttons recklessly

[LelouchX]

I agree with you completely. I loved suppression, but as the game is advancing, it is becoming too hard to use effectively, and it really is nobody's fault. I dropped it after numa, but found it extremely useful there as well. it is hard to time skills with a group when all we have is a keyboard to communicate with each other. Now if we could talk to each other, I think this skill would become a lot more useful. I still see some engis using it though, and a few I have run with manage to use it very well. so kudos to u for dealing with the negativity that non-engis have toward this skill.

[Hullukko]

I think you should make a note about which level and maps you're referring to. The odd remark about pain and aggro made me iffy.

A 31 with customs in sloucho needs not worry about aggro at all. Infact, since the engineer has the capability for empathy/transferance/leech, taking the aggro is the biggest team support one can give. (I'm making a case here for the 31, not because it'd be that much more powerful, it isn't, but because it implies that one has actually taken the time to learn them maps and has done a fair bit of running with the new gear)

As for the suppression... well, if sloucho was harder and with a well known team, maybe, but even then I'd be more inclined to argue that the tanks should use their big skills to control the mob and the engie should concentrate on damage out put (both the red and green kind). Besides I like the tanks wearing ripper and their aoe makes suppression not really useful.

[GigaBits]

Please check post date, this thread was made over a month ago and does not reflect the current levels. At the time it was posted level cap was 26 and nobody, literally nobody, used suppression. I found it quit useful throught the numa campaign and in delta 7 and I felt like sharing my thoughts, mostly because even other classes were complaining about people who used it. I have dropped it for slouch-o but if you check kamikazees UBER build, he explains it's uses much better than I could.

Thanks for the comments but, really, it is an older post that no one felt the need to comment on until now, I had written it off and considereded it dead.

[Glasher]

It is nobodies problem. If you decide to spec into it and you are in a group and they are doing a lot of AoEing don't bother to use it. If your in a PuG your pretty much not going to use it, save it for an emergency. If your with your friends or guild try to work it out so you can optimize the ability. I forget but it does combo with one of the commandos abilities.

[Rob Prose]

From what I've seen since there is no 10 or more player instances the need for a diversified version of a class, such as the support engineer your talking about here, is a moot point. Right now we don't need advanced group dynamics, such as CCing, beyond the current tank, heals, and dps roles. Current damage outputs leave every fight at less than 5 minutes including director and using suppression only lengthens the duration of encounters by keeping them from being attacked slowing the group down(by seconds yes but as a mobile MMO the amount of time players have to play can be varying so seconds do count). Maybe if there is an extraordinary instance added to the game requiring 10 or more players to complete with large trash mobs pulls that might require some crowd control then this topic will be worth further investigation. Not to say that it isnt a good skill for soloers who never run in groups to prove their skillz working alone but it is completely unnecessary for group dynamics.

[LelouchX]

Please check post date, this thread was made over a month ago and does not reflect the current levels. At the time it was posted level cap was 26 and nobody, literally nobody, used suppression. I found it quit useful throught the numa campaign and in delta 7 and I felt like sharing my thoughts, mostly because even other classes were complaining about people who used it. I have dropped it for slouch-o but if you check kamikazees UBER build, he explains it's uses much better than I could.

Thanks for the comments but, really, it is an older post that no one felt the need to comment on until now, I had written it off and considereded it dead.

Sorry, didn't mean to revive a dead thread, but after your insights on my thread i looked at your posts. I did realize it was an older post, but I am passionate engi and i loved this skill until sloucho came out, so i felt the need to add my thoughts. I would have commented sooner if I found it sooner!

[GigaBits]

Thanks louch! It seems it is a bit of a hot topic all of a sudden, I was truly suprised to see it bumped after such a long time(a month in internetz time is like a decade irl XD). The truth of the matter is I only used suppression in delta 7 and numa. It worked great but only with a group who knew what I was doing and knew what they were doing. And I do apologise if my matter-of-fact blunt nature comes off as offensive at anytime.
I like what your adding to the engineer boards, the more the merrier!

Add me Gign gigabits and we can compare/contrast playstyles in the only way that matters, in game =)

EDIT: I should note this was something like my 5th post on the forums, so I wasn't familiar with this wild and crazy family/community.

[Hullukko]

Please check post date, this thread was made over a month ago and does not reflect the current levels.

Sorry man, my bad. Didn't notice the unearthing.

[SuperNas]

Please check post date, this thread was made over a month ago and does not reflect the current levels. At the time it was posted level cap was 26 and nobody, literally nobody, used suppression. I found it quit useful throught the numa campaign and in delta 7 and I felt like sharing my thoughts, mostly because even other classes were complaining about people who used it. I have dropped it for slouch-o but if you check kamikazees UBER build, he explains it's uses much better than I could.

Thanks for the comments but, really, it is an older post that no one felt the need to comment on until now, I had written it off and considereded it dead.

Sorry, didn't mean to revive a dead thread, but after your insights on my thread i looked at your posts. I did realize it was an older post, but I am passionate engi and i loved this skill until sloucho came out, so i felt the need to add my thoughts. I would have commented sooner if I found it sooner!

Thx for posting this..I believe old threads need to be revive...I mean cmon who really wants to read something months old? Besides it keeps the forums alive IMO.

[LelouchX]

This time I am purposely reviving this thread bc i want to hear all your thoughts on suppression in the new maps. i specced it back in for the main boss, thinking i could freeze the little guys, and having two engi in the party at the time, we could switch off during the cool down. However, there seems to be an AOE that is not being used by anyone in my group (we were cooperating testing the strategy) that always broke suppression. I'm yet to find it useful anywhere else in shipyards, but i'm not gonna spec it out just yet, since i'll be getting more skill points on my way to 36 anyway and i refuse to just give up on this skill i once loved so much.

Let me know if anyone else finds a good use for it!

[Kahlua]

I don't see suppression having any use in these new maps for the sole reason that they rely heavily on commando's using AOE attacks and engineers using transference. The first two maps are easy enough to breeze through without any problems. The 3rd map is where things start getting tricky...and the skills start getting used. I spam my AOE skills (skillfully spam...I know what I'm doing :p) to the point that suppression would last a second.

[Lady_Pebbles]

Interesting, I have found the OP info to still ring true at the current level cap being 36. The skill is highly useful in Shipyard when used correctly so that it does not disrupt comms and ops pushes. However, it is always good to run in a good PUG where everyone really does work together & in despite of who is leading.

[LelouchX]

Ooooo i love seeing this thread at the top of the engi forum! i'm sooo glad i accidentally necro'd this a month and a half ago, lol.

@ lady_pebbles - your right, teamwork is essesntial for this skill to be useful, PUG or guild run. since i never know for sure how well a group is gonna work together unless i know them all and have run with them before, i stay away from this skill now. my skill set is built to allow me to tank when no coms are around while still being able to support my group and deal out some damage when there is a com to lead. unfortunately, i can't fit suppression in my build and still be able to do that, and i hate playing my com so i want to be able to tank if needed. I'll leave supression to an engi who wants to dedicate themselves to support 100%.

[Slant]

lol suppression is the hot topic atm, other people not being co-ordinated is just one reason, another reason is that there are too many engie skills that work best at one - pain, supression, revive, so its not just a matter of one skill point, but maybe up to 5 more which are useless in pain, rev, or supp, and can be better used elsewhere... also apart from that where it is needed pain is pretty useful to knock down targets, apart from that any mob control with an engie is excessive, because mob control seems to be less of an engie class role since mandos and ops can do it effectively... but yeah suppression was vital at numa, so was protection back then... maybe some skills are designed to work on some campaigns and not on others