The Engineer's Survival Guide

[Breadkeeper]

I have no points in any dmg skills except transference. I find no point. Even that 3 second stun on pain is useless at the moment because there are no bosses hard enough to warrent needing it? If you could use it to stun miner that would be a different story. But you cant. And miner is the only hard boss.

Im really sad, and dont like switching out my skills. With the 1 point i took when reaching 21 i put 1 in force shield, for that between fights regen. other wise i have 6 protection 6 transference and 6 heal (cant remember the name). I really hope we get some useful spells in the last 3 skills...

[kamikazees]

Protection - (Armor Buff)
Rank 1: 15 energy, 10 second cool-down, and gives a group buff of 10 more armor.
Rank 2 - 6: For every level past 1, you will increase your armor buff by 10 armor points.

[INDENT]
This is a definite help to any group that you are playing support role for. At its highest level, Protection offers a 60 point armor buff for all members on a team. THIS SKILL DOES STACK WITH OTHER PLAYERS PROTECTION! That means technically, if you had 5 players that all had lvl 6 protection, you would see a WHOPPING 300 armor boost!

Might want to also note that Protection lasts a whopping 2 minutes right now. That's longer than the hidden buffs of Revive. Very rarely need to cast it. In fact, I keep it on the second group of skills for that reason.

Attributes - What do they have to do with me?

Important Attributes

INT - Adds the most Hit%, Dodge (unverified), Damage, DPS, and Mana.
DEX - Adds the most Crit.

Non-Important Attributes

STR - Adds the most Health and Armor

Strength is practically useless due to the massive armor buffs you can cast, and our wide array of healing spells.

Are you sure about this section? I just did some respecing, and it looks to me like STR gives the most Hit%, Dodge%, Health and Armor. It was tied with Int for Crit%. Int only gave more Damage (DPS) and Mana. DEX did not do anything better than STR, but I am lvl 13 and it might at later lvls.

EDIT: I am now lvl 17 and have Transferrence. It might be worth mentioning that this skill, while technically a DOT, finishes very quickly and is almost always useful. It applies an instant burst of AOE damage when cast, then one more burst of AOE damage about a second later. The second burst heals people around the enemies.

Also, for Wither and Leech, these skills do no damage on application. Instead, there is about a 2 second delay when you cast them. After the first two seconds, Wither applies 4 times 2 seconds apart (10 seconds total). Leech applies 2 times two seconds apart, each application healing the caster for the same amount (6 seconds total).

Great guide!

[ManBearZombie]

I think it would be a good idea to add what level you unlock specific skills at.

[Raulur]

I have no points in any dmg skills except transference. I find no point. Even that 3 second stun on pain is useless at the moment because there are no bosses hard enough to warrent needing it? If you could use it to stun miner that would be a different story. But you cant. And miner is the only hard boss.

Im really sad, and dont like switching out my skills. With the 1 point i took when reaching 21 i put 1 in force shield, for that between fights regen. other wise i have 6 protection 6 transference and 6 heal (cant remember the name). I really hope we get some useful spells in the last 3 skills...

That 1 point in pain is very useful if you solo. Try running bug bug blast solo without pain... Otherwise you are spot on. I tried 3 in force shield, but it is a waste in points to go past 1.

Currently I have 6 protection, 6 empathy, 5 transferrence, 1 force shield, 1 pain, and 1 resurrect.

[octavos]

Heres my two cents, Im ghost and I have 4 eng alts, the best combo for me is...
from left to right.
1 wither, 2 leech, 2 empathy, 1 revive, 6 force shield, 0 suppression, 1 protection, 3 transference, (4 pain, lv 21, if not 21 use 3)

bottom to top
-row 1 mapping are-
force shield
pain
transference
empathy

-row 2-
wither
leech
protection
revive

So yea, works well solo or team

[Johnaudi]

I read all ...it was great! But one tiny fix: Dex gives also DPS and Hit

[Osehal]

Currently im at lvl 20 and the best build seems to be: Empathy-6, Revive-1, Protection-6, Transference-6. This build seems to work well for teams but not solo because all buffs are party buffs

[csb]

I don't believe different ranks of Protection stacking is a bug. You NEED the armor in this game, as players have less starting stats than PL. It could be an oversight, but seriously I believe it is needed because although everything has less health, including players, in PL terms everything is doing more damage than PL. You need every advantage you can get.

The stacking must be a bug. It doesn't make any sense as far as game design to stack only differing levels.
The original intent would have to be one of these two:
(1) Only the highest level should take hold.
(2) All protection buffs should stick regardless of level.

It may be a low enough bug priority that it remains in the game for a long time. In that case, there would be a big outcry from the community that got used to the buff stacking. (although, the devs tend to not care about public outcry. eg. GCD in PL) Also, sometimes a bug becomes a feature if the result is interesting enough that the devs decide it doesn't cause any harm and its kind of cool.

I think it will get fixed to not stack, and maybe they will give us free re-specs for a week so we stop complaining.

[Torrentula81]

Great guide. I have 1 rev, 6 empathy, 6 transference, but not sure what else I should spend my other 6. Tried pain. Not impressed. Maybe if it didnt have a delay to explode it would be better. Protection didnt seem to notice much dmg reduction. It is nice when two people klin group have it though. Force shield doesnt hold up so well in fight but added ms could be good. Im thinking maybe supression? Any ideas what last 6 could be best spent. I do like to solo and group.

[Weagledan]

Great guide. Need to update now with the Wither and Leech damage descriptions. Does the latest update make Wither relevant again?

- Genesis

[Torrentula81]

The only class I like is the engineer so im making 3 or 4 of them so I dont have to keep spending plat to see what is best as new content comes. Its a great class because the skills are interchangable for a new way of survival. They did this class right.

[kamikazees]

1 wither, 2 leech, 2 empathy, 1 revive, 6 force shield, 0 suppression, 1 protection, 3 transference, (4 pain, lv 21, if not 21 use 3)

This is a very interesting build, but I'm curious. Wither and Leech are both reduced by armor, so don't you find that your ticks of damage are about 3 a piece in Delta 7? That's what I was finding when I tested those. Also, do you think your lvl 6 force shield can take more damage than when it was lvl 1 (some say it does)? Finally, can you tell that the lvl 1 protection makes any difference?

[bronislav84]

I don't believe different ranks of Protection stacking is a bug. You NEED the armor in this game, as players have less starting stats than PL. It could be an oversight, but seriously I believe it is needed because although everything has less health, including players, in PL terms everything is doing more damage than PL. You need every advantage you can get.

The stacking must be a bug. It doesn't make any sense as far as game design to stack only differing levels.
The original intent would have to be one of these two:
(1) Only the highest level should take hold.
(2) All protection buffs should stick regardless of level.

It may be a low enough bug priority that it remains in the game for a long time. In that case, there would be a big outcry from the community that got used to the buff stacking. (although, the devs tend to not care about public outcry. eg. GCD in PL) Also, sometimes a bug becomes a feature if the result is interesting enough that the devs decide it doesn't cause any harm and its kind of cool.

I think it will get fixed to not stack, and maybe they will give us free re-specs for a week so we stop complaining.

Be happy. The Devs agree with you. The game just became 3x harder at the content level. 1x Commando and 2x Engineers (21, 21, and 20 respectively) used to be able to clear the first spawn in Big Bug Blast and now they can't. Not without deaths or a lot of pot spam anyway.

[noneo]

Wow, I need to update this bad! Sorry about the lack there of updates, I was on my honeymooned which followed my wedding and crazy wedding planning. But now I am available again to start updating the OP.

Planning on adding:

New skill builds with the skill updates
Combo "how-to's"
Fixing skill descriptions
Changing the "play style" with the removal of the protection stack
Once I hit 25/26, I will offer my skill build, specs, attribute delegation, and gear I use.
And any changes you fellow community members have pointed out.

Expect a large update in a day or two.

[noneo]

I updated the main post with minor tweaks throughout and updated the skill descriptions. I am missing a few portions of them, but will add them when I level up my alt account.

[Redbridge]

Wicked... Just come back to SL since the iOS release and was finding my Engineer playing a bit ineffective, so came back to read this and found it very useful. Exactly what I was looking for.

Is there any chance you could add what level the various skills become active/available from?

Will let you know how I get on, going to test out whether to max force shield or not.

[Raulur]

My personal opinion is that force shield is a waste now. If you use it in a fight at high levels, it is gone the first hit. Good luck getting teamates to wait for you to use it between fights. If you want power regen, just get the implant. Plus you always have the res buff.

[noneo]

Is there any chance you could add what level the various skills become active/available from?

Yes that is on the top of my list once I hit 26. I have to level an alt and record when I gain each new skill (as I forgot already what they were *facepalm*). Also, I will be constructing a list of how to delegate skill points as you level. I.e. when you hit level 5 what point to put where, at lvl 6, etc. (keep in mind, this will only be for my particular build since there are many variations).

[Apostar]

Here's something I would like to see added; at what level are each one of these skill achieved. For a new player they might find that imformation keen. Fantastic guide btw. Thanks

[noneo]

Ok, I threw on what level each skill was unlocked at. Please let me know if I put the wrong level down for any of them.