The title says it all, this build is dirty, pin them down and blow them up. Sorted.
So I've been running a ground engineer since last Christmas, I love it. It was the second dedicated ground character I made (yes McDuffie 100k skill points slapped into ground) and since then is one of my most well played characters I have.
Why am I telling you this? Well recently I've been running some STFs and a bit of PVP, and people have been asking about my characters build. Normally I'm secretive on this stuff but they asked nicely.
What is this build all about?
Nail them down and blow them to pieces, you ignore Michael Caine's instructions that are
"You're only suppose to blow the bloody doors off". It was designed for maximum efficiency in PVE, but also performs surprisingly well in PVP.
This build is designed for the new-ish
Spire Enemy Neutralisation Kit Mk XII
For those that aren't acquainted with this excellence of engineering kits, it is like the standard Enemy Neutralisation, but has Chroniton Mine Barrier IV, and Quantum Mortar II
You can also use the Equipment Technician Kit with it as well as the Fabrication Specialist as well... just like recycling
"The possibilities are endless"
Lets focus on the bombing aspect, as that's the bread and butter of this characters build. I'll try and cover nearly everything, from the gear he's wearing, down to the traits he has.
So without further ado, let me introduce you to
James Callahan (Skill point, gear, and rep layout here)GEAR
Pretty simple really:
You get your bonus critical chance and critical severity from the armour, and the 3 piece bonus. The omega distortion though nerfed unforgivingly recently, is still useful for slipping past groups and a little extra damage resistance never hurts!
Honour guard pulsewave, you hardly ever fire the primary, but you'll definitely love the secondary, grenades go boom, bombs go boom, everything goes BOOM!
Your kit, as explained earlier, Spire Enemy Neutralisation Mk XII. I personally think the devs had me in mind when they designed this kit, wishful thinking huh?
Cordrazine Hypos, are lovely, better than normal hypos, if you have see them in STFs, GRAB 'EM. They increase your maximum health by 25 as well as heal, wheres as normal hypos just... heal.
Shield Charges = essential, as well as something nice later on in the thread.
Weapons batteries/Immunosupports/any extra food items for buffs, it's that extra slot, I guess you could use a shard or a cane. Your choice on this one.
Gambling Device! More dodge, more cri chance, more crit severity, what's not to love? Oh and switch it out once you have the buff for something of your choice.
Skill points
As some of you may know, we do have a forum dweller who believes that we shouldn't use 100k skill points in our builds. 100k skill points allows us to specialise our ground characters, as well as not tie them down to one kit, or one aspect of our characters ground combat.
Before we move on,
a huge shout out to the creator(s) of these tables.
I won't go into too much detail on the skill points, I'll be able to answer any questions later on, but doing it here would turn this into a thesis. here's a quick summary instead.
Using that table I was able to figure out which skills are worth putting points into, and what amount I should as well. Now bare in mind, I want to boost every aspect of this build, so that's why you'll see Turrets and Drones, Modification Specialist, and repairs with pretty high values, not just Demolitions.
Traits
Look, I know some of you are obsessed with Orbital Devastation, but this is instant damage, we don't have time for DoT, and standard orbital strike has a nice proc on it as well. KDF = Damage Resistance Debuff, FED = Movement Speed Debuff, Romulan = Plasma DoT. In my honest opinion, it is not worth a trait slot, especially when compared to these guys.
Aggressive: Increases your damage and threat generation
"But I don't want to get shot!!"
"You're an engineer, and they won't be able to shoot much will they!"
Conduit: Improved Shield Charges and Power Cells, more healing more damage, did I also say power cells boost your orbital strike?
Creative: More damage on kit powers and more healing on powers
Lucky: Critical Hit and Expose Chance boost
Regenerative Tissue: Boosts passive regeneration, the healing you receive, and resistance to DoTs
Resilient: Physical and Energy Damage Resistance
Shield Harmonic Resonance it's like a elite fleet space shield, gives you bonus resistance to what the enemy are attack you with
Soldier More energy damage and crit severity on ranged weapons, still testing what this effects, whether it's just your handheld remotes or your big bad orbital strikes.
Sure Footed: This trait is lovely, immune to root whilst in aim, immune to knock whilst crouched, and if your in neither positions, you still have some resistances to both of the effects.
Duty Officers
Otherwise known as DOFFs, some people like these chance based, some like them definite certainty, some like them in between.
This is when Callahan gets more complex, there are so many other indirect buffs going on more than you realise. A key element in your plans for choosing doffs with an engineer is that support drones are affected by your doffs as well, so they can buff you with equipment diagnostics, and boost your weapon damage with the proc. Nice huh?
Fabrication Engineer: Chance to beam in an additional Support Drone, 2 more to be precise, these support drones shoot stuff, and buff you with Shield Recharge and Equipment Diagnostics.
Diagnostic Engineer: Chance to increase ranged damage with equipment diagnostics, this little boost affects all damage you deal as far as I know, and is also a good doff slot filler. Try out 1 or 2 of them.
Diagnostic Engineer: Chance to grant 99% Shield Damage Resistance when using Shield Recharge, remember when I said support drones use this on you? Uhuh, you can get this doff to proc on you through that, also a very good doff for the equipment technician kit.
Explosives Expert: Chance to beam in an additional quantum mortar, so you beam in a Quantum Mortar II with your kit, and then 2 Level III mortars beam in alongside it. More damage!
Biochemist: Recharge time reduced on all stims, shield charges, and power cells. Goes together very nicely with that Power Conduit trait, more survivability, and also you won't have to worry which device to use, you'll have a short wait until the global cooldown is over.
Gotta love 6 doff slots right? If you only have 5, only use 1 diagnostic engineer.
THE END!... Still here?
That is pretty much the details of the build, any questions ask them, I have a lot of fun with this build. That being said it is fairly expensive to set up, so prepare to get the EC cheques out, it's not for the faint hearted, but it is A LOT of fun.
If you want to contact me in-game
@James_Turner. Thanks to
@K8K for help over the years with STF runs, pvp, testing and having to put up with me!
I'm the guy that uses unconventional builds, and don't fall to the normal. I also don't believe in "No-BS" TRIBBLE, it's in the game, it's ready to be used. Think Clint Eastwood in Heartbreak Ridge.
Comments
And this song is perfect for the test runs:
http://youtu.be/xhrBDcQq2DM :P
Awesome ground build!
Wasn't it...
You decloak and the whole shabang, but I'd tank your damage, pin you down, and blow you up?