Worth making an Engineer?

dykeras · June 2016

I already have a Rom Tac, a Starfleet Sci and have decided to make a 3rd for the new expansion but unsure about the effectiveness of Engineers.

Seems Tac are the damage dealers, Sci can do amazing things with Grav wells etc... but seems all Eng officers can do is survive longer?

Am I missing something with regards to Engineers? Or am I better to roll another Tac or Sci officer?

gradii · June 2016

Yes make an engineer.

sandukutupu · June 2016

I have an engineer. It was my first character I made so she is an admiral now. In ground combat engineers use cannons, shields, and lay down mines. I haven't played in a long time but I like issuing the order to fire the orbital cannon from space.

I don't know how much has changed since they overhauled the skill point system. I equate the engineer to the handy weapon smith in your party. Tactical = warrior fighter, Science = wizard cleric, Engineer = summoner conjurer

Unknown · June 2016

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baldrick8 · June 2016

They would be useful in a tank role, if tanking was useful in STO...

Seriously, their strength lies in taking damage, rather than dealing it. This can be quite fun in single player content or zones, not so much in PVE queues.

daviesdavies · June 2016

they can hit the power overwhelming button and will have the juice to faw faw beaucoup long time.
but most of the time I make tac because it can punch through missions and queue slightly faster

engineer/sci toons are for bof training purposes and enjoy what the game has to offer.
like spawn a covershield to block an entrance for a bit laugh

"Embargo!" "Who is the boss of bartertown!"

sometime you just have to have all the classes
you never know what weird things you can pull off with one of them
due to unbalance or some weird bug

gradii · June 2016

I frequent the STO reddit chat channel and know players there who have 1k dps ground, 100k dps space science officers and engineers. I personally prefer being indestructible but its totally possible to get high ground and space dps on a non tac

Unknown · June 2016

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antonine3258 · June 2016

Engineer's can be really vicious in ground combat, with some real variances in playstyle offered.

Their space skills aren't bad either.

salvation4 · June 2016

Do it, its fun..I have a fleet admiral engineer who can whoop TRIBBLE..Example is in a nakhul RA my entier team got wiped and I had to fend off the second wave till my team spawned back, in the mean time I could take out the frigates and a destroyer whilst my team took out the remaining destroyers..The trick with an engineer is in the skill system tree and the ship load out..I have a Sov undergoing upgrades to MK XIII all Very Rare Quality Items, I have the entier Sol Defense system too and that is also under upgrade to MK XIII..
On ground I have the quantum mortars & turret fabrication ability..There again you need to be ok with what your away team config is..I use 2 tac, 1 engg & 1 Sci..

questerius · June 2016

Got this bookmarked for reference
https://www.reddit.com/r/sto/comments/46o618/so_what_does_everyone_think_of_the_ultimate/

Having reviewed it again i get the urge to create another engineer for AoY with the full engineering.

neomodious · June 2016

Engineer is my favorite for ground combat. Keep in mind that DOFFs affect BOFF powers for ground too. so with a couple of engineers, you can move with a whole horde of drones that can repair each other/turrets/mortars. If you can kite enemies at all, or your in an area you need to hold, engineers are probably the easiest answer.

teknesia · June 2016

As someone who is not a DPS chaser, I love the Engineer career. On ground, you can get all your turrets, drones, and so forth all in before the fight and annihilate anything that comes within range. I feel like my character is the ultimate in special forces when I'm rolling engineer.

In space, you don't get the damage buffs that a Tac does, but you do have really great survivability through almost anything and you can keep your weapon energy levels way up to help compensate.

I've gotten away from escorts ever since I started flying that Eclipse, but when I first started playing STO way back when, Eng was great with escorts. You could still knock out targets in one fell swoop and have the damage mitigation to survive longer encounters.

orion0029 · June 2016

Engineers can be totally fun to play. I have a few of them and they kick so many backsides on ground combat it just gets funny. Lol. Turrets, Mortars, Drones, Orbital Strikes, etc... On the ground Engineers get all the fun toys!

In space Engineers tend to be overlooked by most as a real threat, you've said it yourself OP, Tacs are damage dealers, and Scis are 'space wizards', but Engineers are really the "jack of trades" class in space, they are especially good at surviving longer than Tacs and Scis, and are much better at achieving and maintaining high power levels. So while they don't have much for directly offensive abilities they can support/buff your bridge officer offensive abilities quite well!

So, yeah, make an engineer. You won't regret it, they are very versatile! Also, I'd recommend making an 'Alien' Engineer, the Alien race has a trait called Efficient Captian which compliments the engineer class abilities quite well!

jaguarskx · June 2016

I don't put too much emphasis on DPS; I focus more on having fun. But having said that I can do decently well in advanced space and elite ground.

Personally, I will be making an Engineer because of my current 9 captains, I only have two engineers. One of them the 1st captain I create in STO. I would have preferred to create a Romulan Engineer since I do not have one, but sadly that is not possible for the AoY expansion "faction". Sure tactical captain can do more damage and doing damage is good. But I also prefer not to blow up as well since that takes me out of the action (and potentially cause ship damage).

I play all three classes and I would have to say that I probably enjoy playing as an engineer a tiny fraction more than science and tactical which both come in extremely close 2nd place to the engineer. Science because of "space magic" and tactical because... BoP.

staq16 · June 2016

Definitely worth it.

Received wisdom is that Tacs rule all - in space perhaps, but on the ground Engineers can do great damage with turrets, mortars, mines and bombs. But who wants to stick mindlessly to the DPS uber alles mindset?

I rolled a Ferengi engineer a few months back, and he's been utterly brilliant to play. Running the Nandi - a ship with lots of weapons, tac and sci slots but little native Eng seating - he's been perfect; his native self-heals and power boosts allow the ship to run its damage and CC abilities to full effect. On the ground he runs around setting mines and bombs as traps - exactly how you'd expect a Ferengi to fight.

glenn · June 2016

My first character is an engineer.

As many have said here, engineers rule ground combat because of their toys they can deploy. Sure a tac has some great abilities but who needs great abilities when your orbital strike has just killed everyone.

As they have also said, in space, an engineer can tank big time! You have passives and the almighty "Miracle Worker".

I have used my engineer effectively on an Escort. You would be surprised how much longer you can hang in a fire fight.

whamhammer1 · June 2016

I enjoy my engies, more system power than any other class (great for beams), want more power across the board? Pop a battery! Gets extras shield and hull heals (less need for multiple boff heals). Can entrench on thte ground like a champ!

sharpie65 · June 2016

As somebody who mains an engineer, it's definitely worth giving it a go. Of course, their strengths lie in being able to take a right good thrashing. Built right though, you can get an unbelievable amount of DPS out of them. True, Tactical will almost always outperform Engineers and Science just by nature of the suite of abilities available to them..however, Engineers get a damned-good power boost at Level 17, and the ability to offset power drain slightly at 27.

At 37 is where it really gets good - a nice large Hull- and Shield-heal in the form of Miracle Worker. Couple that with Grace Under Fire, and you'll ifnd that it can save your hide on more than one occasion. On the ground, Engineer captains get access to an Orbital Strike in their faction's energy "flavour" at level 34 (Phaser for Federation, Disruptor for Klingons, and Plasma for Romulans). This doesn't change with the weapons equipped on your ship though - it's nice for spike and AoE damage when you find yourself in a tight spot, and is a pure damage ability.

nebfab · June 2016

Engineers may be weak at the very top end, but for semi-casual play they're actually better. You have plenty of power, which is more than a compensation for no APA or GDF until you start talking about some very expensive stuff that for me is no longer casual in any meaningful sense. My rom engineer consistently came 1st or 2nd in CCA during the event, even though her build wasn't 1/4 of the price of some of my other alts. And you've got an excellent panic button combo with Grace Under Fire and Miracle Worker (Rotate Shield Frequency can help too.) so you may go a bit more aggressive with boff seats.

I'm still to experiment with ground kits, but, from what I saw other people do, constructing a "fortress" with turrets, mines and whatnot and luring enemies into it can be a very good tactics. And you've got Orbital Strike.

davefenestrator · June 2016

Great on the ground, kind of meh in space. No space magic, lower DPS than a tac.

You might want to create a KDF Engineer just to play the unique KDF story episodes, then make your AoY captain a TOS tac since you already have a Fed sci.

nikeix · June 2016

The thing to appreciate about engineers is that you can spend you skill points and load you ship like a berserker in perpetual blood-hazed rage. You don't get the nifty direct damage multipliers, but you can wade into the heart of the fray and just wallow in the carnage... ...and not die.

officerbatman81 · June 2016

I love your poetic words.

nikeix · June 2016

My engineer runs an Eclipse Intel Cruiser - 'Tanking' may not be a necessary thing but coming out of cloak in the middle of a mass of enemies with threat stance on, popping structural integrity leech, and alternating BFAW III and Surgical Strikes III is pretty much the power and the glory. All your aggro are belong to me. You just rip things to pieces and when they shoot back you laugh in their face. The trait that resets Miracle Worker makes the whole process ludicrous. Tac/Escorts dish more damage but you can almost hear the sign of relief with they can go about their business without any risk at all. Your high-proficiency guildies don't need that margin for error, but it'll put a spine of tempered neutronium into a so-so PUG.

sharpie65 · June 2016

Reading that build of yours makes me want to revisit my own Eclipse and see what I can do with her. But the Yorktown makes a decent jack-of-all-trades ship as well.

dumas13 · June 2016

Engineers are worth a try for the ground game. It's a very versatile class in a way that Tacs only dream about, though not quite as flashy as space magic lighting enemies on fire. You can heal shields and HP, protect allies and exclude enemies from an area with the Force Field Dome (very handy against melee users), deal massive damage with mines and mortars, and throw out buffs and debuffs. Orbital Bombardment is amusing, but I do wish my gunner had the balls to do a proper bombardment and not just one wimpy shot.

In space, I'd agree that engineer captain powers are a bit lackluster from a DPS standpoint, but added durability and not waiting to respawn has its benefits. But as long as you don't plan to be super competitive on the DPS charts or whatever, they perform well enough.

Unknown · June 2016

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antonine3258 · June 2016

The point on power flow with engineers is a good one - they have some abilities that can help ease the sting of, say, not having a Plasmonic Leech for all your characters, Fed-side.

questerius · June 2016

antonine3258 wrote: »

The point on power flow with engineers is a good one - they have some abilities that can help ease the sting of, say, not having a Plasmonic Leech for all your characters, Fed-side.

Up to the point where an engineer in space has close to unlimited power. The downside is that engineers do not have debuffs like sensor scan or buffs like Attack Pattern Alpha.

Engineers can last a lot longer in a fight, but are slower do kill opponents.

sharpie65 · June 2016

dumas13 wrote: »

Engineers are worth a try for the ground game. It's a very versatile class in a way that Tacs only dream about, though not quite as flashy as space magic lighting enemies on fire. You can heal shields and HP, protect allies and exclude enemies from an area with the Force Field Dome (very handy against melee users), deal massive damage with mines and mortars, and throw out buffs and debuffs. Orbital Bombardment is amusing, but I do wish my gunner had the balls to do a proper bombardment and not just one wimpy shot.

In space, I'd agree that engineer captain powers are a bit lackluster from a DPS standpoint, but added durability and not waiting to respawn has its benefits. But as long as you don't plan to be super competitive on the DPS charts or whatever, they perform well enough.

The profession-specific Genetic Resequencer for Engineers (Ground) turns Orbital Strike into a longer-lasting "chasing beam" that follows the currently-selected target. It works, and it's fun.

iconians · June 2016

In a game as easy as STO, you can afford to roll an Engineer without worrying about doing two trillion bazillion eleventy thousand DPS or whatever. It's not necessary. You don't ever need to be optimal. I stopped caring about my DPS output a long time ago when I realized just how irrelevant it all was.

So, if you want my advice, roll an Engineer. Have fun deploying turrets on the ground. Have fun having unlimited power in space, and being nigh unkillable.

Worth making an Engineer?

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