Quote Originally Posted by Raulur View Post
their skills. Without protection they will be concentrating on staying alive, wondering when they will have to spam stims next. You are trying to help the tanks, not make them leave because they ran out of stims.

...

The only thing that annoys me more than an engineer without protection is one that doesn't heal.
That's why we put 1 point in it. It's unfortunate that we have to waste 1 of your 8 skill slots on a feel-good placebo, but it that's how people react. You're just proving it.

Quote Originally Posted by Raulur View Post
Seriously though... what else are you going to spend the skill points on? Shield rarely lasts long enough to regen the energy spent, making it worthless. Pain doesn't benefit much from extra points. Sonic boom has a rediculous cooldown. The first skill is ok now, but you can get it to a decent level without dropping protection. Leech doesn't heal enough at high levels to be considered, imo. So that leaves supression, which can be useful in rare occasions. Mostly it is just annoying because it changes your target, and the first aoe will cancel it out anyway.
Leech heals for about 1/4th-1/3rd of Empathy per tick. That's significant, and its your only other source of healing besides TF and Empathy.

Wither does decent damage on long-lasting enemies, too.

If you have to choose between a skill that mitigates a handful of damage and skills that improve your survivability when you get aggro and reduce the duration of long boss fights, what would you choose? It's not about being selfish. It's about being smart.