Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer/Character Customization/Engineer

Engineers are support specialists that focus on setting up ambushes and providing support fire, often through the use of a variety of enemy-distracting drones, decoys, and turrets. They excel at destroying enemy tech. Engineers tend to place an emphasis on power usage and the creation of Tech Bursts.

Human Engineer
Humans joined the galactic community after discovering a Prothean data cache on Mars in 2148. Their devotion to understanding and adapting to modern warfare left the staid Council races stunned. Humanity's persistence and unflappable spirit has taken them further than anyone in the galaxy could have imagined.

Human engineers are support specialists that set up ambushes, provide fire support, and destroy enemy tech. Their value is not lost on an ally when a battlefield is cleared of turrets.

Player Notes

 * General Notes
 * The Combat Drone is useful in its own respects, being able to draw fire away from team mates (even if it is for a brief period) and causing a little stress in the enemies ranks. Alongside this, if there is nothing to target, or the end of a wave, it is the sort of power you might as well use since you can recover before the enemies arrive.
 * Counter-intuitively, it may be wise to reset the powers of a Human Engineer so that you can focus on maxing Overload, Incinerate, Fitness, and Weapons & Power Damage skill trees rather than the Drone. By doing this one can get 20% extra weapon damage, and 35% power damage, as well as a few extra capacity points. This tactic allows Incinerate to devastate armour and health, while Overload fills in the gap of dealing with shields and barriers. Combined together, a Human Engineer can be very versatile and capable of taking on almost any enemy single-handedly.
 * Because Engineers are a power-focused class, one should keep their loadout as light as possible. At 200% recharge speed, you can potentially fire off Overloads and Incinerates every 2 seconds, causing utter havoc against enemies of any kind. A good weapon combination to equip is a Carnifex X, and a Disciple X or Hornet X. This combination with power damage and capacity maxed out, gives 160-165% recharge speed or even 200% when using the Decrease Weight rank 6 evolution in the damage tree. Then outfit the Piercing and Barrel mod with the Carnifex, and you can eliminate the Engineers biggest problem which is armor-plated Reapers, or Cerberus Guardians. Combine the powers with this advantage and you have a character with pretty much all bases covered.
 * Overload and Incinerate detonate tech bursts.
 * Cerberus
 * When dealing with Guardians, release a drone behind him. The Guardian will turn towards the new threat, showing his sensitive side to your sights.
 * High levels of Overload can wipe out Phantom barriers quickly, making them much easier to take out
 * Reapers
 * Because most enemies are armored or have only health, Incinerate is extremely useful here. Overload can expose Banshees and Marauders to a burning from Incinerate. All in all, this can be an Engineers best enemy to engage due to the enemies weakness to Incinerate.
 * Geth
 * Overload can be indispensible against geth troops as bigger foes all have shields. Weaker troops without shields can be stunned for a short while.
 * Overload or Incinerate on a Pyro with a damaged tank will detonate the tank immediately.
 * Overload and Incinerate together will devastate shielding with a tech burst, a deadly combo when used on Primes since it can strip most of a Prime's shields in one go, even on Gold.

Quarian Engineer
Quarians have spent centuries at perpetual salvage and ship repair--the survival of their species depends on this technical expertise.

Quarian engineers are elite support specialists with a talent for setting up ambushes and providing cover fire through the use of turrets. Their technical wizardry makes them crucial contributors on the battlefield.

Player Notes

 * General Notes
 * Female Quarian Engineers are a little more focused on dealing with armored and unarmoured foes. They are less effective against barriers and shields, but using a weapon effective against the two will make you much more effective. If using the Sentry Turret, it's best to focus on damage per second abilities, i.e. the flamethrower, armor-piercing rounds, and endurance. If you find the turret to be a little too fragile, weak, or just useless, consider maxing the other four skills. By combining Cryo Blast with Incinerate (and the Frozen Damage evolution at rank 6 on Incinerate), you can inflict huge damage to frozen enemies and armoured enemies.


 * Cerberus
 * Cerberus enemies are mostly shielded, but Cryo Blast will still slow enemies down by 15% or 35%. It also makes them vulnerable to taking double damage from Incinerate with the Rank 6 Evolution Freeze Damage, as with all enemies. Those that are shielded should ideally be tackled with a team mate with Overload, Energy Drain, or a powerful anti-shields/barrier weapon like the Reegar Carbine. Against Atlases the Cryo Blast-Incinerate combo is extremely deadly since it allows for over 1000 damage to be inflicted with just one Incinerate. The turret is a simple fire, forget, and hope it kills as many as possible strategy. On higher difficulties, this is very difficult.


 * Reapers
 * Reapers are the ideal enemy for Quarian Engineers. With only two enemies with extra layers of protection (Marauders and Banshees) it is very easy to snap-freeze the unprotected, or chill and slow the others. Because the enemies cannot to dodge (except for Marauders) Cryo Blast is very effective. Incinerate is also deadly on its own, but together they pretty much lock enemies down in a more permanent fashion. Only Banshees are a real nuisance because they are heavily protected by barriers, and a very high amount of armour. Their teleport ability also acts as dodging tactic for your bullets and powers, causing a great deal of stress, but if you pair up with somebody with Overload, the Barriers can be brought down quickly, while the Armor can be Incinerated. Brutes are a pain, but are slow, cannot dodge attacks, and are highly vulnerable to Incinerate and powerful-but-slow weapons.


 * Geth
 * Geth are possibly the most difficult of all the forces, since every enemy (with the exception of the Geth Trooper) has some kind of shielding which prevents snap-freezing. Since most Geth are shielded, it would be highly recommended to abandon the Quarian Engineer and instead go for one of the other types of Engineer. While Cryo Blast does slow enemies down and can be comboed with Incinerate, the amount of times you will be stunned outside of cover by Geth makes it very difficult to fire off powers against them. The only real enemies that Incinerate is effective against are Geth Pyros and Geth Primes, but they need their shields stripped first. Consider using a human or geth Engineer instead.

Salarian Engineer
Salarians have a high-speed metabolism that allows them to function on just one hour of sleep a day. They also process information much faster than other sentient races.

Salarian engineers specialize in providing long-range cover fire and debuffing targets. These agile combatants are deadly and difficult to detect on the battlefield, particularly once they bring their decoy ability into play.

Player Notes

 * General Notes
 * The main strength of Salarian Engineers is their ability to draw enemy fire. Their Decoys are capable of withstanding huge amounts of damage, often allowing their squad to take care of business. Energy Drain makes a Salarian Engineer even more difficult to kill, allowing them to siphon the shields and barriers of organic enemies or drain the energy from synthetics. If Incinerate is also invested in, it also provides a very good means of destroying armor and health too. Considering many armored units are synthetics, this makes them very powerful without Incinerate, allowing for an investment into durability or weapon damage. As with all engineers, it would be best to keep your loadout as light as possible for maximum power usage.


 * Cerberus
 * Most enemies have shielding. This provides an ample opportunity to leech off enemies like a vampire. Done correctly with a low weight loadout a salarian is almost invincible. Being able to gain 40% damage reduction, and 50-100% shields for every use more often than not, salarians could be used almost like a charging krogan. If Incinerate is employed, it should be used against enemies that are unprotected or Atlases. Aside from that, gear yourself for survival, put a Piercing Mod on a powerful sidearm like the Carnifex, and you are all set.


 * Reapers
 * Reapers are a real pain for Salarian Engineers. Since they are more geared for dealing with shielded enemies, it is almost impossible to use anything other than the Decoy effectively - which will also be destroyed very quickly due to the aggressive nature of the Reapers. Incinerate can be used to great effect, but considering its usefulness is outweighed by Energy Drain more often than not, it is recommended to avoid this type of Engineeer, consider a Quarian or Human Engineer instead.


 * Geth
 * The Salarian Engineer is ideal for facing geth. The Energy Drain skill affects geth regardless of their protection, health, armor or shielding. This makes geth extremely vulnerable to salarians of either class. The decoy will deter the enemy from firing openly on them while they continue to sap away the geth's energy. A little caution never hurts though, since most geth are capable of stunning their foes on attack. The stuns will disrupt all actions including rolling or taking cover, so stay in cover to negate this effect.

Geth Engineer
The geth are a humanoid race of networked AIs that were created by the quarians 300 years ago as tools of labor and war. Having since won their freedom from their creators, the geth have proven they are able to reason, analyze situations, and deploy tactics as well as any organic race so long as they remain networked with other geth.

Geth engineers are elite support specialists. Unique perception systems give geth an unsurpassed understanding of the battlefield.

Player Notes

 * General Notes
 * Geth Engineers are very fragile, but used correctly, are extremely lethal against enemies with shields/barriers or other geth. Their Overload ability can allow them to inflict over 800 damage per use to shields/barriers or synthetics and Hunter Mode makes them capable of casting these Overloads at break-neck speeds and inflict over 900 damage. This is especially apparent when combined with the Hunter Mode's Rank 4 Power Recharge evolution and Rank 5 Power Damage evolution. Damage can be pushed even higher using gear and/or power amplifiers, allowing for over 1300 damage to be inflicted in one use. This makes geth unmatched for tech power damage.


 * Cerberus
 * Their Overloads are lethal against the shielding of Cerberus troops, with only Guardians needing a Piercing mod, or weapon. Against Atlases multiple overloads are required, but the shields can be stripped at an unbelievable rate, with only the Reegar Carbine beating its rate of draining.
 * Because Hunter Mode halves shielding, caution is advised. Consider using a turret near your location, but in a position where it will be very difficult to hit and subsequently destroy.
 * Reapers
 * Geth Engineers suffer against Reapers. Lacking any real anti-armor/health powers like Incinerate, or Cryo Blast, one would be best using guns.
 * Overload is none the less, good against Marauders and especially Banshees, where their barriers are very strong. Despite this, opt for a Human, or Quarian female engineer instead.


 * Geth
 * We are at a consensus, Geth Engineers are deadly against Geth. Since Geth are synthetic and all enemies have shielding (except basic troopers), Overload works absolute miracles here. Being able to destroy the strongest of shields in just 1 or 2 Overloads, even Prime shielding will quickly deteriorate. Combine that with an anti-armor weapon, and you have the ultimate Geth hunting combo.
 * If one needs a second anti-shield weapon, the Reegar Carbine fills that role, and a close quarters role very nicely.

Quarian Male Engineer
Quarians have spent centuries at perpetual salvage and ship repair--the survival of their species depends on this technical expertise.

Quarian engineers are elite support specialists with a talent for setting up ambushes and providing cover fire through the use of turrets. Their technical wizardry makes them crucial contributors on the battlefield.

Player Notes

 * General Notes
 * Quarian Male Engineers are more directly suited for dealing with shields than their female counterparts. Their Arc Grenades do not operate on a cooldown, so anywhere from 1-9 grenades can be thrown at once, the latter numbers will annihilate any shielding from even the strongest and most durable of enemies. This power pretty much eliminates the need for Incinerate, but grenades need to be kept topped up to maintain combat-effectiveness. Because one can forego Incinerate (the only other power aside from Tactical Scan), one can take a moderate level of weight and still maintain a pretty good level of Scan usage. By going for this approach one can equip a powerful, but heavy weapon such as a Revenant, or Widow, or Claymore and still be very effective.
 * Because Arc Grenade deals triple damage to shields and barriers, the Armor Damage evolution is a viable option for dealing with Banshees, Geth Primes, Pyros, and Brutes.
 * The Quarian Male Engineer can reliably set up Tech Bursts on its own when using area evolutions of Incinerate and Arc Grenade.
 * The Quarian Male Engineer can be a very potent support character when using the Movement Speed and the Area Scan evolutions. Area Scan will reveal all enemies within a very large radius of the enemy scanned, which can reveal cloaked enemies like Phantoms and Hunters.  It can also be used "blind", where one does not target an enemy.  This can be useful if a smokescreen is set up.
 * Equipping a Falcon with Disruptor Ammo is a reliable way to prime and detonate Tech Bursts when throwing Arc Grenades, especially if the Electrical Damage evolution is taken. The area-of-effect damage that the Falcon deals will help set up and trigger Tech Bursts across multiple enemies.


 * Cerberus
 * Grenades will very quickly tear through initial enemies or drastically weaken Atlas Mechs. Tactical scans can weaken Atlases even further and make them even more vulnerable to a pounding. This also works with Phantoms, which can greatly decrease their movement speed which is their main trait. Combine that with Cryo Ammo, or Cryo Blast from other players, it can bring Phantoms to an almost complete stand-still.


 * Reapers
 * A little less effective against Reapers but certainly not rubbish against them, there is little need to spam Grenades against basic troops since most of them will die in just one shot from a more powerful gun. Against Banshees, let rip with the Grenades and the Barriers will fall in seconds. Because most of the Reapers are either armored or lack protection, Incinerate would be slightly more useful here, but ultimately it is a matter of choice whether you wish to keep the Male Quarian to combat the Reapers.


 * Geth
 * Spam grenades: geth are extremely susceptible to Arc Grenades and one can take out entire armies of geth single-handedly. The only real threats are as always the Geth Primes, and Geth Hunters. When out of grenades, try to restock when you can, otherwise use your weapons to take out the stragglers or other enemies. Aside from that, the first chance you get, spam the living daylights out of the Grenade button.