Engineer Guide (Mass Effect 3)

A support specialist focusing on setting up ambushes and providing support fire, the Engineer can also destroy enemy tech.

Overview
Engineers have been very well fleshed out in Mass Effect 3. While continuing to excel in the trade-mark supporting and de-buffing roles, their damage capacity and range has also been vastly expanded. The addition of Combo Explosions (similar to Biotic Combos) for powers like Incinerate, Cryoblast and Overload allow for continuous crowd control and damage output at the same time. The Combat Drone power, loyal as ever, is great for distracting immediate threats and bosses like the Atlas and the Guardian, while the Sentry turret provides flanking and cover fire. And with both the Combat Drone and the Sentry Turret doing significant damage while not using the attention of the player or his cooldowns, the Engineer is a high damage class even without needing to set up biotic explosions. Or a safe one, able to keep the enemies controlled by spamming powers while effectively having four squadmates to kill them.

Incinerate
This power is one of the most useful in the Engineer's arsenal, capable of eliminating an enemy's regeneration due to its over time damage while also making them "panic", delivering a high damage output, damaging armor effectively, and arcing over cover. Incinerate is usually evolved towards single target damage increase over radius increase since most enemies with armor are usually the big bosses and/or spawn less frequently. Though given the chance to panic multiple unarmored targets wouldn't be bad, Overload does a better job because of its low recharge time and its seemingly large chain radius.

Overload
Overload is the Engineer's counter to targets with shields or barriers, and can also be used to stun enemies if the rank 5 Neural Shock upgrade is chosen. Unlike Incinerate and Cryo Blast, Overload does not use a projectile; the power strikes its target immediately, but is unable to arc around cover. Overload can prove an effective weapon even against unshielded enemies, as it has a relatively short cool down, hits numerous foes with the rank 4 and 6 Chain Overload upgrades, and does reasonable damage even against health. Adding the rank 5 Neural Shock upgrade makes Overload one of the best crowd control powers available. Also worth noting is that Overload tech bursts are much easier to cause than incinerate or cryo explosions because the enemy does not have to be killed by the detonating power.

Cryo Blast
Often still considered as a one-point wonder, this power is arguably one of the most underappreciated powers in Mass Effect 3. While one point was often enough in Mass Effect 2, in Mass Effect 3 Cryoblast can be built to have one of the lowest cooldowns of the Engineer's powers. Since unarmored targets are still common late in the game, spamming Cryoblast can be very effective. The power can snap-freeze unarmored targets, immobilizing and incapacitating them while also amplifying whatever damage they receive. Partially frozen targets, or chilled targets, are slowed instead of immobilized, but still receive extra damage from attacks. The ability also weakens armor to subsequent damage.

Combat Drone
The Engineer's signature skill comes back better in doing what it does best: distraction with an added bonus of target elimination. This power spawns a mobile, significantly shielded sphere-like machine that shoots light projectiles to opponents. It's range is decent, its damage effective against most shields, but the most effective feature is how it staggers opponents it attacks. It spawns on your crosshair or behind a target enemy, so its use is usually to stagger an opponent behind cover to give the Engineer a chance to shoot at the hidden opponent, to distract opponents by tanking damage, or to harass opponents completely if left unattended. The evolution of the Combat Drone is usually dependent on player preference, but building it towards having more shield and damage with the chance to hit two targets on Rank 6 is suggested. Evolving it around close range stun (Rank 5) or long range burst damage (Rank 6) is also effective.

Sentry Turret
Possibly the Engineer's best friend if equipped with a Sniper rifle. While the Combat Drone is primarily used as a distraction or to dislodge enemies from cover, the Sentry Turret is more oriented to defense. It is perfect for setting up at choke points or to guard your flank while you focus on other enemies, especially when your peripheral vision is limited through a sniper scope. The evolution of the Sentry Turret really depends on player preference since a Sentry Turret can hold out on its own even without a Flamethrower or Rocket Launcher, both of which are actually effective in what they do. And even if they do get eliminated quickly, an Engineer's recharge time is usually low anyway.

Sabotage
This power is a mixture between Mass Effect's Sabotage and Mass Effect 2's AI Hacking. The result is a power that either overheats the targets' weapons, dealing damage and preventing them from shooting for the duration, or hacks synthetics to fight by your side for a time, providing damage and drawing fire. Unlike AI Hacking, Sabotage works on shielded synthetics, including elite Geth such as Geth Primes. Due to there being relatively few Geth missions in single player and the high damage rate of Cerberus turrets even without the rank 6 Berserk upgrade, Engineers might wish to consider taking the Tech Vulnerability upgrade instead, greatly increasing the damage potential of tech powers for the entire team.

Fitness
Fitness isn't that useful a power for the engineer - they should be taking less direct damage than most other classes as they have good crowd control and effectively two bonus squadmates. Three points might be worthwhile for a 25% health and shield boost, but more than that is almost certainly a bad idea until at least after Tech Mastery, Overload, Incinerate, Sentry Turret, and Combat Drone, and probably your bonus power are all fully evolved. For that matter I wouldn't go beyond one point.

Tech Mastery
Tech Mastery is your passive power - and adding to your reputation helps. As does adding significantly to the damage output of the powers you use regularly - or allowing yourself a bigger gun and to keep spamming powers. It's not your first priority power, but it is extremely useful.

Defense Matrix
Defense Matrix is the primary defensive option for the Engineer (with Barrier and Fortification also being possibilities). From ranks 1-4, Defense Matrix provides a defensive boost, at the cost of a 60% recharge reduction - a steep price for a powers-using class unless the only major active powers you have are Combat Drone and Sentry Turret, both of which should take long enough to kill that you can mix a defence and a big gun as an unusual strategy. Purging your Defense Matrix will restore 50-100% of your shields depending on your rank and how you developed it which leads to the "double tap" tactic of when in trouble activating and then immediately purging your defence matrix to restore your shields, keeping you alive long enough to find cover.

At ranks 5 and 6 these powers come into their own - rank 5 offers a 25% damage boost, offsetting the damage lost from the recharge penalty, and rank 6 lowers your recharge penalty to 30%. Due to the diminishing returns from very high recharge bonuses, a 30% penalty to recharge times will increase your cooldowns by very little; more than justifying the damage reduction and increased outgoing damage if you keep your weight bonus high and seek out other power recharge bonuses.

Warp Ammo
Both of these are based round the same idea. You have a nearly comprehensive power set, so you want to add something passive to the mix. An ammo power will raise your damage without distracting you from your existing powers. Warp Ammo does more damage and hurts barriers.

Inferno Grenade
While it's true that the Engineer is a well rounded class, with few offensive holes, it is one of only two classes without a grenade power (The other being a Vanguard, which doesn't need one due to its use of Nova )This being the only grenade power available as a bonus power, will close that hole, and give you a great clutch power to throw out when you need some breathing room between power cooldowns. If this power is chosen, and you want to invest your talent points into it, it is best to choose the options that benefit its radius, which provide a strong secondary crowd control option. Its burning damage will stun any enemies caught in its blast, and will still do decent damage, which gives you plenty of opportunities to find cover, or create distance, as well as build your shields back up, and get back on the offensive.

Decoy
My experience is that properly upgraded turrets or drones are better at drawing fire than a decoy - they do damage themselves and so mark themselves as targets.

Defense Drone
If you're doing something odd and getting into close combat this would be a useful power as it's more extra damage. But engineers can readily hang back and shoot.

Weapons and Equipment
The Engineer's flexibility in taking down all types of defense and being able to flush enemies out of cover makes it so that most weapons can be viable candidates. The main concern is keeping recharge speed high to keep throwing out powers. As for armors, an obvious but excellent choice is Inferno Armor, which gives a combination of faster recharge speed and increased power damage.

Combat Guide
Most Engineers fight by relying mostly on their tech powers as a main form of attack and defense, with lightweight weapons as backup. Light weapons are preferred not only reduce cooldown, but compensate for the Engineer's lack of close-quarters defenses. Engineers can find themselves in hot water should they be rushed by a swarm of close-combat enemies like husks.

Crowd-control Engineers should focus more on quickly maxing out their Turrets and Cryo Blasts. This allows you to stop or at least slow potential rushes. Offensive Engineers should instead focus on powers such as Overload and Incinerate, which can rapidly wear down protected enemies. Combat Drone is essential in any major firefight, stunning enemies out of cover and drawing enemy fire.

One of the most underrated (or rather, under-described) aspects of an Engineer's play style is the Tech Combo. With the Cryo-blast Recharge time and Vulnerability set to the max, and Incinerate geared towards frozen damage, every alternate cast becomes a combo Cryo-Explosion freezing further enemies. A lightweight loadout and a spellcasting build would ensure that you are effectively casting every 2 seconds. Such an application in for example, a narrow passageway, could cause a continuous freeze choke-point similar to an Adept's Singularity. This translates to an average of an enemy every 2 seconds.

Because the Engineer is a largely supportive role, players should be constantly aware of their surroundings to any potential ambush; short-range backup weapons are recommended especially when up against Reaper ground forces; most Reaper enemies will not slowly advance or wait long enough for Engineers to effectively counter at long distances.

Squad Members
Liara is an all around great squad mate. Because of the Engineer's ability to destroy shields almost immediately, Singularity is very effective crowd control. Liara's Stasis bubble (Rank 6) can be used to hold enemies in close proximity for area upgraded powers (i.e. Cryo Blast and Incinerate), and also helps neutralize Phantoms, which (unlike other organic units) are immune to Overload's stun and cannot be frozen by Cryo Blast. An alternative to Liara is Javik from the From Ashes DLC. He has some rather unique and powerful biotic attacks as well as being capable of dishing out massive amounts of weapon damage.

Alternately, an Engineer synergizes well with squad mates that have tech powers. Incinerate can be upgraded to do significantly increased damage to frozen enemies, Overload (or Tali's Energy Drain) causes a tech burst when hit with an offensive power (e.g. Incinerate), and both Cryo Blast and Sabotage (with Tech Vulnerability) increase damage considerably. Combining three of these powers (or even all four at once) can be absolutely devastating, but requires teammate support. As such, EDI, Kaidan, Tali, and Garrus all compliment an Engineer quite well.