The new Supression - great or terribad?

[shannong]

I've got two guild mates who still swear by suppression and think it's the bees knees vs big mobs such as in Numa guardian runs. Me? I hate that it breaks target lock on the big vular in fights like that and feel it's too difficult to reacquire target lock on the mini boss in a huge cluster of targets, which means more people get mauled by the mini boss before we can burn it down.

In my experience, just everyone burning down the mini boss ASAP while the engies spam Transferrence and Pain for AOE damage (and all other classes spam their AOE skills) works just fine and is safer overall. I've seen complaints that broken target lock from the new Suppression has caused people to accidentally reacquire lock on a nearby vular and aggro it, making fights much more difficult.

What are your thoughts?

[CanonicalKoi]

Hate it as an Engineer. Really seriously, with-the-heat-of-a-thousand-suns hate it when I play Op. One second I'm hammering away on something nasty and the next I'm shooting, say, a (mostly harmless) squid-head on the ground because somebody cast it. On my Engi, I have zero points in Suppression. YMMV.

ETA: In retrospect, I should've said something (politely) to the young Engi I was playing with yesterday--he was casting it every time it came up and the run was getting very frustrating. My bad. :(

[kamikazees]

The new Suppression is great. The problem is that most Engineers are not using it correctly. As pointed out, it will cause everyone to break auto-attack, ruining your group's DPS and ticking people off. Instead, here is how to cast Suppression:

1. Do manually target mobs that are on the outside of the main group, or that are coming up from the back.
2. Do follow Supression with Pain. If you have targeted mobs in the back and used Suppression, then Pain, the back row will have a nasty surprise in 3 seconds.
3. Do think lower priority targets. The burrowers, for example, are great targets because they approach in waves and join the fight at different intervals.
4. Do not autotarget and cast Suppression. Everyone else has already autotarged the same mob, and your autoattack will break your own Suppression.
5. Do not think you can suppress a mini-boss, or boss. Everyone is already attacking that mob anyway.
6. Do not cast Suppression simply because its cooldown finished. This skill is a tactical skill with specific, not general, uses.

[shannong]

The new Suppression is great. The problem is that most Engineers are not using it correctly. As pointed out, it will cause everyone to break auto-attack, ruining your group's DPS and ticking people off. Instead, here is how to cast Suppression:

1. Do manually target mobs that are on the outside of the main group, or that are coming up from the back.
2. Do follow Supression with Pain. If you have targeted mobs in the back and used Suppression, then Pain, the back row will have a nasty surprise in 3 seconds.
3. Do think lower priority targets. The burrowers, for example, are great targets because they approach in waves and join the fight at different intervals.
4. Do not autotarget and cast Suppression. Everyone else has already autotarged the same mob, and your autoattack will break your own Suppression.
5. Do not think you can suppress a mini-boss, or boss. Everyone is already attacking that mob anyway.
6. Do not cast Suppression simply because its cooldown finished. This skill is a tactical skill with specific, not general, uses.

What skill level do you keep suppression at? And for point #2, when Pain goes off on that suppressed cluster, doesn't that make all of them aggro you directly? That would seem counter productive.

[kamikazees]

What skill level do you keep suppression at?
Here is my current build: UBER Engineer (http://www.spacetimestudios.com/showthread.php?35628-UBER-Engineer-build). I keep Suppression at 2 so I can stun 3 mobs. I've considered taking it to 3, but I wouldn't go any higher than that.

And for point #2, when Pain goes off on that suppressed cluster, doesn't that make all of them aggro you directly? That would seem counter productive.
Things are not what they seem! You have 3 seconds to back up and get your positioning before Pain goes off. Those mobs typically have to run through the center of the battle to get to you. Then because they are melee mobs, you can kite them or just kill them in their weakened state. Aggro is not a problem.

[Reggin]

With an organized team, suppression is amazing! You just need to lead the group and teach them how to cooperate.

I absolutely love my level six suppression, especially with all the non aoe commandos out there.

First, tell your group no aoe. Lead the way and open with suppression. Have the tank open with force hammer for the combo and everyone blast the mob.

Personally, I like a comm, two ops, and another eng in the group. Max level suppression lasts a full 8 seconds, so two eng can essentially keep an entire group locked forever by juggling casts.

You can literally clear entire maps with no need to even heal. Granted this works better with a skilled group than pugs.

I was questioning whether or not to share this trick, but I'll go ahead and share it. Hopefully STS doesn't change it. You can easily do boss speed runs to farm with organized suppression.

It freezes long enough to get keys or plant explosives. Just have the whole group race to bosses. Suppression trash and run past them.

[noneo]

First, tell your group no aoe.

This is my main reason against using the skill. Sure you can teach a team how to run properly with it, and I am sure it is quite effective, but to me, calling out "No AOE" is like saying "Let's make this round take longer". You are essentially knocking out skills from all 3 classes that can be used to kill enemies faster. I like Pain much more as it stuns the enemy that really needs to be stunned - the boss/mini-boss. Players can still wail on a boss with Pain in effect and the boss doesn't come un-stuck. Another great method, if you have a good operative, is to cast Pain, and right before/as it explodes, have them cast their "knock-back" skill. By the time the enemy stands up, your Pain has regenned and you are ready to freeze once again.

[kamikazees]

First, tell your group no aoe.
Please do not ever say this unless you are fighting Cockroach in Pocket Legends.