Engineer Guide

The Engineer is the Tech specialist of Mass Effect. They use tech talents to effectively de-buff enemies and neutralize them. Engineers are great at using their tech talents to weaken their opponents and then have their squad finish them off while providing support with their pistol.

Class Talents

 * Pistols- Very essential to the class. After using a tech talent against an enemy you will need to      follow up with a barrage of fire from your pistol. Increases damage and accuracy for each talent point.
 * Basic Armor- You will need to put quite a few points into this talent as the engineer does not have very much health or protection from enemy fire, and the shield boost ability is a very useful ability to have once you increase your shield strength. Talent points increase damage resistance and hardening.
 * Decryption- The base of the Engineer class. It is extremely useful to deactivate an opponents weapon as soon as you meet them so you have the advantage. Increases damage done by the explosion of all tech abilities.
 * Hacking- Allows the ability to turn synthetic enemies against each other, which can be useful once you upgrade it a bit, but don't rely on it too much. It also increases the recharge time on tech talents, but upgrading the spectre training and class talents is much more effective.
 * Electronics- Increases shield strength and unlocks Overload which is very useful as it disables shields, allowing you to directly attack an enemies health, which is very helpful to use on higher level enemies with tough shields and health. Increasing your shield strength is very very important as you will need to rely on your shields to defend yourself.
 * Damping- Important to use because it increases the radius of the tech talents explosion. It allows you to use the ability to disable enemy tech and biotics, which can be useful when fighting asari or higher level geth.
 * First Aid- Increases health returned when using Medi-gel and lowers cool-down time for it. It is not very important to the class, except if you plan to do most of the work and take the blunt of the damage dealt to your squad, so you might need it to heal yourself.
 * Medicine- Reduces cooldown time on medi-gel and allows you to use Neural Shock which can be fairly effective against organic targets.
 * Spectre Training- Grants the very useful Unity which, unless you are planning to specialize as a Medic is the only way to heal your squad mates.

Combat guide for the Engineer
First off, you should probably not be an Engineer your first time playing Mass Effect. Engineer's are somewhat weak compared to the other classes as the of damage that they can deal and receive is considerably less than the other classes.

Getting into fights as the engineer is all about de-buffing. Right when you get into the action use some of your tech talents such as Sabotage to stop them from firing at you(recommended to use against stronger enemies that deal more damage) or Overload to take down their shields so you can thin their ranks in the first few minutes of combat. Make sure you try to use those abilities in an area effect as to affect as many enemies as you can, but sometimes it is better to target bigger threats. Using an ability against many enemies can be useful, but if a stronger opponents rains down loads of damage, it would be better to target by priority. You should target the priority threat as to stop it from doing much damage. This problem of choosing targets to de-buff is easily solved by putting more points into damping which increases the radius of most tech talent's explosion. Using the ability damping is to be used mostly on biotic enemies, solely because biotics are the spearhead of damage done by biotic enemies. Damping also disables tech abilities, but it can be hard to target which enemies can use tech against you other than the Geth Hopper.

Increasing your pistol talent points is also important because it is what deals damage to the enemies that you just disabled using your tech abilities. Accuracy is fairly important as you should be able to be a fair distance away from your enemies when you use your tech so that your squad mates can do most of the firing. Ergo, you should have an accurate weapon so you can fire from a medium distance away. What is a lot more effective though, is using the Assault Rifle talent as a bonus talent. Assault rifles can deal lots of damage to an enemy without shields or the ability to shoot back. The amount of fire that can be displaced on an area is great combined with the Engineer class.

One thing to make sure you do is increase your shield strength and find armor that has a high amount shields so that you can adequately protect yourself. Engineers can take very little damage before they fall, so having a high amount of shields by increasing your Electronics talent. You should have no trouble finding armor and other upgrades because of the Decryption talent which allows you to access hidden items in locked areas. Decryption will also let you more effectively repair the Mako.

Squad Composition
In order to be an effective fighting force in Mass Effect as an Engineer, your squad members should be powerhouses. Premium choices would be Ashley and Wrex. They can deal vast amounts of damage and Wrex's biotic powers can be very handy. Ashley's first aid can also be useful so that you do not have to spend many talent points on your first aid talent. Both also have a high amount of health which means they can take the heat off you and have them be your line of defense. Kaidan can also be an useful ally because of his biotic abilities and first aid, in place of Ashley's first aid. When making your choice you should always remember that you are mostly support, your squad is the main force of attack.

Engineer Specialization Class
Operative- Specializes in Sabotage and Overload as well as reducing recharge time on tech talents. Putting points into this class is much more effective at getting increased recharge time than hacking. Medic- Specializes in recharging medi-gel and increasing it's effectiveness as well as increasing the effectiveness of the Neural Shock ability. This is not a very useful class as the perks of Operative are much more useful, unless you do not have another squad member with the first aid ability. Alliance Marine 05:09, 11 August 2008 (UTC)