Engineer: Difference between revisions

But that is not the only way to Engineer a victory. Fully upgrading Buildings is not a requirement, meaning a particularly bloodthirsty Engineer (usually called a Battle Engineer) can build a Level 1 Sentry near an objective and start spilling blood himself with his primary weapon, or leading enemies into his Sentry Gun. This flips a lot of the Engineer's weaknesses on it's head, but some stay. Instead of being restricted to a few viable Sentry spots and being stuck babysitting his Buildings, he is much more flexible and is free to help take names and objectives. This also allows Engineers to focus on supportive Buildings such as Jump Pads and Dispensers rather than just his Sentry. Level 1 Sentries still function as good area denial tools and because it can be moved much faster than a Level 3 and can be replaced much more easily, this allows an Engineer to be much more aggressive and creative with his Sentry spots. Make no mistake, a Level 3 Sentry will always deal out more damage than a Level 1, but a Level 1 is much more mobile and flexible. The Engineer is still very fragile however, sharing the lowest base health in the game and lacking tools such as speed, long range or invisibility as other light classes, and his Shotgun doesn't offer the same damage as other primaries. Desite that, a good Battle Engineer can be a deadly threat the enemy team, denying valuable flank routes and killing off stragglers, and just when they kill the Sentry, whoops, theres another.

Despite haing many weaknesses, both obvious and not, the capacity of an Engineer to warp the entire game around his encampments makes him the most powerful defensive class in the game. His buildings are priority targets for any enemy to destroy, and the game simply cannot go on if there is a Sentry Gun defending an objective, and even Level 1 Buildings still offer incredibly support to teammates and annoyances for enemies. On offense using upgraded Buildings is generally not a good idea, unless there is a specific spot that the attacking team has difficulty pushing through, in which case he can set up shop there. Or alternatively he can follow his team with Level 1 Sentries and help take out enemies. On defense, he is impossible for a solo player to deal with when properly positioned, and requires a coordinated team effort to destroy entirely. While he is difficult to play optimally, and requires a lot of management of his buildings, the archetypal building spots are easy to pick up as a new player, and does not require sophisticated knowledge of the game's mechanics to be effective. This makes him appealing across a wide variety of skill levels, especially for those who don't mind building an empire, seeing it turn to rubble, and starting all over again.