The Katsumi build for efficient Guardian farming
This build concept can be successfully employed from level 22 onward and will provide the most efficient support to your team during Guardian runs. Because it's hyper efficient for Guardian runs, it's also an all-around strong build concept. This build assumes you agree with somewhat recent testing/conclusions about both Force Shield and Protection being incredibly inefficient at helping your team and about Force Shield being incredibly inefficient at giving you improved mana regen.
First, the basic stat/gear loadout:
All your spare stat points in Intelligence. Not a drop added to Dex or Strength. You don't need them. As for gear, if you can afford the platinum Explorer's armor set, do so, because the +15 dodge it gives you is priceless. It also increases your mana pool quite a bit over the regular green gear. As for weapon, give those Savage Claws to a guildmate and buy yourself the +3 Dodge platinum rifle (Explorer's Repulsor Rifle). This gives you a grand total of 20 Dodge. And your base rifle damage of 43-76 makes all your heals and DOTs a *lot* larger than if you stick with any type of engineer gloves.
The skills:
6-4-6-1
0-0-1-6
1-0
6 Wither gives you a base 10-14 per tick DOT over 10 seconds, ready to use again just 2 seconds later.
4 Leech gives you a base 6-14 per tick DOT over 6 seconds, ready to use again 9 seconds later. The heal component is inconsequential. Prioritize this one *last*, as soon as you hit 16 and can start building up Tranferrence. If you've been using Leech before 16, dump it and put every point into Transferrence instead. Ideally, fill out these 4 points of Leech last, starting at level 23. You should have everything else in place by level 22.
6 Empathy is one of your bread-and-butter heals.
1 Revive is for reviving teammates and for giving you 40 power regenerated "for free" every minute. That's 40 power for 1 skill point, which is the most efficient of any possible combination of Revive and/or Force Sheild. This is all you need. Spend your precious skill points more efficiently in healing and damage skills.
1 Protection is for a "placebo effect" to make uninformed players think you're doing a good job with your buffs. What they don't know (that Protection is utterly worthless) won't hurt them. It will keep you from being auto-booted from some groups led by a player who is uninformed. If they ask what your Protection is at, smile and lie to their face: "6". Meanwhile, don't worry about overwriting a possibly higher-ranked Protection from another healer in the group. Truly, this skill is inconsequential and worthless. Your 1 versus another 6 makes effectively ZERO difference to the survival of the team or the amount of pots they might need to consume if they're overextending themselves.
6 Transferrence is your other bread-and-butter heal as well as your single best attack! Spam this at the right moment in every new mob encounter to mitigate the alpha strike of damage. Rush in right behind your tank and as soon as he starts firing and the mobs are moving towards him, pop this baby then fall back a little bit and kite a little bit in case you aggroed some of the mobs to yourself. Your teammates (and your own rifle auto-fire and the DOT from your Transfer) will kill them fast enough. Don't just stand there like a noob. Keep moving a little bit near your cluster of teammates until nothing's chasing you and spam Empathy and auto-fire. And please...when you hit 16 spend the next 6 points in Transferrence and nothing else. It's our BEST skill. I'm amazed how many Engies I've PUGGED with from level 16 to 26 who don't use Tranferrence. You're crazy! lol
1 Pain is for the 3-second (20% chance) stun but mostly for the 15-25 damage targeted-AOE when the stun drops.
Against mini-bosses and bosses, keep them loaded up with both Wither and Leech for extra DOT to contribute to the team damage output. Save both of these dots for bosses and mini-bosses. Same for Pain.
Enjoy. You will be uber with this build.
General attack rotation:
Alpha strikes for mobs. Run in with the tank, pop Transferrence as soon as his first cannon round hits and aggros the mob, then pop Empathy, Run back and auto-attack, spamming more Empathy and Transferrence as needed. If the mob has a mini-boss in it (like the Vular in Uncharted Ruins), wait until you've got him targeted, then unload Pain first, followed by Wither and Leech. Repeat as needed, and keep bombing him with Tranferrence too unless *all* adds are already dead. Don't stand still after dropping your first Transferrence! Kite in short circles near the bulk of your team or in short arcs near them, watching for mobs that might have aggroed you from your first Transferrence. Sit still and they nibble on you; kite and they don't nibble on you, while your teammates/tank and your own rifle kill them dead. Learn to kite tightly near your team and pop Empathy every time you're close to them so that you hit them all with Empathy. Meanwhile, don't just stand there until you're sure nothing's mad at you (or you can easily laugh off the damage).
Guardian. Run in after the tank grabs aggro. (The tank has to keep himself alive at first with their own Vigor and Increased Mass. Smart tanks will have both of these at 6 and can easily survive Guardian without using pots until you catch up.) When you get in range of the tank, pop Empathy to help him out and get yourself in position at the cliff's edge with your back to the cliff. Now spam everything you have at the Guardian when it comes off cooldown, and spam Empathy to keep your teammates healthy. Don't stand right near the Guardian... move back or to the side so you're out of the "splash zone" but still close enough to reach your teammates with Empathy and to auto-fire your rifle. One nuance point to conserve energy: If you have two operators in the group, don't bother spamming Pain because it probably will never hit with the stun component, and the AOE component is largely wasted. Let your operatives do the stunning with overlapping Flames of Insanity.
