Updated 7/26/2015
Engineer DPS Guide
Contributors:
Artifa Ultraviolet
Pyro Maniac
Verge Nobyl
Overview / TLDR
This section is for all the TLDR people if all you want is our personal pointers and tips here you go.
- Maximizing In the Zone uptime (30-70 volatility) translates into buff uptime.
- Minimize dead GCD time and maximize counts of hardest hitting abilities
- Learn to sprint to avoid telegraphs, dashes should be saved for rotational needs to stay in the zone.
- Prioritize Bio Shell whenever it is off cooldown. It does the most DPS.
- Being strikethrough capped translates into a solid rotation of Bio Shell, 3x Bolt Caster, repeat.
- Use VI, Barrage, Strobe, Quick Burst, and Innate as often as possible, but Innate can and should be saved for times when burst is needed.
- Do not be afraid to run T4 RM and Repair Bot. RM is an extremely potent raid damage absorb and Repair Bot is great at shield heals.
- Keybind Primary Pet Action Bar Slot 3 (this kills your bots) and Primary Pet Action Bar Slot 4 (this moves your bots).
Builds
Vince Builds or other LAS addons are your friend.
One thing to always remember is that a single engineer must always run Bio Shell and if you are the only Engineer in the raid you will need to add tiers into Volatile Injection in order for it to have 100% uptime otherwise you will need to coordinate with the other Engineers in the raid to make sure you maintain proper uptime.
The builds below will have two missing amps since jabbithole has not updated how many amps you will now have at endgame. Also the last two LAS slots have been left empty to allow you to decide what is needed given the fight situation. If you want to do extra damage you can add in Unstable Anomaly to be cast inside the Bolt Caster GCD. If interrupts are needed on the fight you are able to grab OV, Zap, or Bruiserbot.
Note For Dungeons: You can make use of any of the below builds for dungeons. AoE Electrocute builds will be best on trash and multi-target fights, and Bolt Caster builds on single target. Bring T4 Zap and Obstruct Vision (tier down Artillerybot) in your utility slots and interrupt often.
Example Dungeon Build (base AMP/Ability Points) - Just add in T8 Electrocute or Bolt Caster as needed
Single Target
These are builds for single target fights. Bolt caster is the primary spender and bio shell and dashes are builders. In both builds there is room for extra utility skills as needed. If T4 Recursive matrix is required take tiers out of VI and Artillerybot. Urgent withdrawal, Diminisherbot and zap may also be removed for additional skills.
AoE
For AoE fights use Electrocute as a spender and either Bio Shell or Target Acquisition as a builder. When deciding on which build to use make sure all raid debuffs are already covered.
Rotation
Single Target
The single target rotation begins with a double dash into an instant cast Bio Shell. Volatile Injection may be cast before the pull to start gaining volatility outside of combat, if not used then, cast to coincide with Innate. After casting the first Bio Shell begin spamming Bolt Caster. After reaching 30-40 Volatility, use Innate + Gadget and continue to spam Bolt Caster. Make sure to continue casting Volatile Injection, Quick Burst, Artillerybot, and Diminisherbot on cooldown. Use Bio Shell when its off cooldown, while between 30-70 volatility*. Throughout the rotation maintain “In the Zone” uptime by using dashes to generate volatility.
Notes: Bio Shell has a 0.5 second GCD and currently does more DPS then Bolt Caster so use Bio Shell as much as possible.
Due to Bolt Caster hits reducing the cooldown of Bio Shell, being strikethrough capped is extremely important. Lowering the cooldown of Bio Shell allows for less dashes in the rotation therefore increasing dps.
AoE
TA + MS
The AoE rotation begins with a half cast Target Acquisition followed by a Mortar Strike. Volatile Injection may be cast before the pull to start gaining volatility outside of combat, if not used then, cast to coincide with Innate. Immediately after Mortar Strike, use Innate + Gadget then spam Electrocute. TA + MS should be used during innate as innate counts as being in the zone. Make sure to continue casting Volatile Injection, Quick Burst, Artillerybot, and Diminisherbot on cooldown. Upon dropping below 30 volatility, recycle the opening rotation to maximise “In the Zone” uptime.
Bio Shell AoE
The AoE rotation begins with a double dash into an instant cast Bio Shell. Volatile Injection may be cast before the pull to start gaining volatility outside of combat, if not used then, cast to coincide with Innate. After casting the first Bio Shell immediately use Innate + Gadget and begin spamming Electrocute. Make sure to continue casting Volatile Injection, Quick Burst, Artillerybot, and Dmininisherbot on cool down. Use Bio Shell when its off cooldown while between 30-70 volatility*. Throughout the rotation maintain “In the Zone” uptime by using dashes to generate volatility.
Stats and Runes
Stat Priority
Strikethrough Till 17% > Multi-Hit Chance > Vigor > Critical Hit Severity > Critical Hit Chance
Why Stop at 17% Strikethrough?
- The highest Deflect Chance of any mob is 24.5%. in raid you should have -2.5% from True Strike and -5% from an Esper/Stalker meaning you only need 17% Strikethrough. Beyond this point Strikethrough is converted to Armor Pierce which is bad. Get as close as you can to 17% going a little bit over is far better than a little bit under though as getting deflected can upset your rotation
- Engineers get significant in-combat buffs to Multi-Hit Severity which pushes Multi-Hit Chance to the top of our list for Stat Priorities it provides the highest amount of output damage per rating than any other stat aside from strikethrough before cap.
Fusions
Weapon: Mordechai Redmoon's Ammunition (MRA performs better on single target and multi-target fights than Venom or Siphon)
Head: Barrage
Chest: Flurry
Hands: Shredder
Feet: Quick Feet
Rune Sets
Overview:
Striker: Our main rune set. Provides high amounts of Multi-Hit chance and Strikethrough chance.
Onslaught: Our best supplementary set. Provides much need Vigor and Strikethrough chance.
Eradication (Genetic Archives Class Set): A pretty strong set that allows our innate to do extra damage. The 4 set bonus provides us with much needed burst in AoE situations while the 8 set bonus just gives us a flat damage increase during our innate.
Technician (Datascape Class Set): This is the best class set for engineers. At the four set bonus it allows our bots abilitys to have a 10 second cooldown as well as allows them to be resummoned after one second if they are destroyed. The 8 set bonus just increasing bot damage by 20%. This set allows us to have a 10 second cooldown on an interrupt with Bruiserbot, as well as a shield heal from Repairbot. It helps provide us with great utility in raid and the obvious increased damage from our bots.
Ruthless (Augmentors Rune Set): Potent runeset that provides an additional damage proc on multihit for the four set bonus. While the eight set bonus provides a multihit buff to you and four nearby allies.
Tweaking your Rune Sets:
Strikethrough too high?
1. Exchange an Exceptional 120 Striker Strikethrough Rune with a Non-Exceptional 120 Striker Multi-Hit Rune
2. Swap Vigor with Strikethrough runes for your Eradication Set so that it has 2 Vigor Runes (1 Exceptional, 1 Non-Exceptional) and 1 Strikethrough Rune (Exceptional)
Full Runes [No Class Sets]
Full Runes [With Class Sets]
Abilities
Builders:
Bio Shell T4+ only - builds 30 volatility, 4.5 to 9 second CD, .5s GCD
- Physical damage
- T4 - Instant cast while between 30 and 70 volatility
- T8 - Restores a Dash Token and deals additional damage to the primary target
- T4 - landing a multi-hit deals tech damage to the target and 4 foes within 4m.
- T8 - Deals additional tech damage to up to 9 foes next to the target within 8m.
- Provides 8% multi-hit severity and 8% glance chance buff to you and 19 party members for X seconds based on tier.
- T0 - 10 sec. T3 - 13.75 sec. T6 - 16.75 sec.
- T8 - When you multi-hit with direct damage, reduce the CD of your Innate by .67 sec.
- Try to coordinate so all DPS engineers use the same tier if possible unless someone is running t6-t8 as that provides ~100% uptime. This is to prevent loss of uptime. Lower tiers of VI do not apply to a target if a higher tier is already active on that target.
- Deals additional damage on hit to 3 targets, 2.5s ICD, (4 procs per innate cast)
Spenders:
Bolt Caster - spends 25 volatility, hits 3 times, 1.25s GCD
- Single target, physical damage spender. T4 reduces Bio Shell GCD 0.5s per hit
- T8 deals increased damage if target has no shield (most raid mobs)
- AoE tech damage spender. T4 self buffs your technology damage done
- T8 deals bouncing chain lightning damage
- Small AoE, tech damage. T8 adds a strong DoT
Other:
Unstable Anomaly
- Does average damage and is off the gcd but causes a .75 gcd. Use this ability immediately after a Bolt Caster for a slight damage increase.
- Creates a narrow field that increases your and your allies' movement speed by 100%. Amazing utility skill.
- Our only IA remover + interrupt, 26s CD
- T4 removes 2 IA, necessary in interrupt heavy fights
- T4 grants 5% Multi-Hit Severity whenever he’s alive. Never go without it
- AP contribution from tiers are very strong, dump extra points into it
- Don’t Barrage if the mob is moving or will be moving soon, it is floor based
- Base only, tiers are not worth the points ever. Fire on CD
- Filler ability for when you don’t need utility abilities
- Does average damage from melee range. Use Ability on CD.
- Tiers are strong, better than quickburst. dump extra points into it
- T0 Creates a field that provides deflect chance and CC resilience (lowers duration of CC effects). Field refreshes duration allows this to be 20 second duration.
- T4 is our most powerful group utility tool. It rivals Defense Grid for preventing damage to the raid at times, and has a wider range
- Breaks CC, provides a small personal absorb shield
- Good filler if you have open ability slots (base only)
- T4 is a 5% crit buff for 10s, 17s CD
- T8 is a self cleanse of 2 debuffs
- Taunts 10 targets, reduces damage done to everyone except taunter for 6s.
- Raid damage mitigation tool that can be useful even as a DPS at times
- Tiers increase the damage reduction and threat transfer
- T4 makes it last 8s
- 26% damage reduction at base for 5s
- Grants a large absorb after the duration ends
- Best personal defense ability.
- Removes 1 IA, but the range is pretty short
- T8 Destroys 2 IA and interrupts.
- Our “movement CD” is a great tool for exploring and wall-climbing
- Launches you up and backwards, and snares
- Base can be used for a slight single target damage increase
- Tiers increase range
- T4 gives you an extra charge, with all 3 charges you can go amazing distances
- T8 immunes you to CC for 1.5s
- Deals weak damage
- Interrupts the target and 5 foes within 5 meters. Should be used over OV when a 2nd/3rd interrupt is needed.
- Deals damage and restores shield to you every 3 seconds
- Shield Boost ability restores shield to you and 4 friends
AMPs
Assault:
Tier 1’s
- Crit/Crit Sev/AP - 2/4/6%, 4/8/12%, 2.5/5/7.5%
Core AMPs - Should always be taken. If points are needed tier 2’s should be dropped first.
- Provides 10% Armor Pierce while between 30 and 70 volatility.
Core AMP - One of the only sources of Armor Pierce.
- Provides an Empower for 5 seconds which increases Multi-Hit Chance by 10% after landing a critical hit.
Core AMP - It has nearly 100% uptime and is therefore 10% multi-hit for 4 points.
- Landing a hit will deal 5% AP damage every 2 seconds for 6 seconds. This can only occur every 6 seconds.
Optional AMP- Does good damage, but has weak scaling making it strong with basic gear and average with BIS gear. First AMP to be dropped if points are needed elsewhere.
- Provides 10% Critical Chance during Innate.
Weak AMP - Due to our natural scaling with multi-hit this AMP is weak.
- Landing a multi-hit deals 4% tech damage to the foe and 4 foes within 6m. Can only occur once every 1 second.
Optional AMP - One of the weakest of the tier 2 assault AMPs due to the poor scaling. Only ever taken if not using Reckless Dash on an heavy AoE fight.
- Landing a hit with direct damage applies 1 stack of Unstable Volatility. Reaching 3 stacks deals 10% AP damage.
Core AMP - Does great damage.
- While between 30 and 70 volatility gain Empower: Increases Multi-Hit Severity by 8%.
Core AMP - With nearly 100% uptime, this amp is a must have.
Hybrid A/S:
Tier 1’s
- Strikethrough - 1/2/3%
Core AMPs - Should always be taken. - Life Steal - 2/4/6%
Optional AMPs - Self Explanatory.
- When your direct attack multi-hit, gain an empower for 5 seconds which grants 1.5% AP and SP and stacks to 3. Buff duration is replenished every critical strike.
Core AMP - Provides a 100% uptime 4.5% AP buff.
- While between 30 and 70 volatility gain 5 volatility every 1 second.
Core AMP - Used in all builds for volatility gain.
- Dealing direct physical or technology damage grants an Empower based on damage type for 5s. Physical Empower: Increases Physical Damage Dealt by 6%. Technology Empower: Increases Technology Damage Dealt by 6%.
Core AMP - Provides 6% damage with 100% uptime.
- While in between 30 and 70 volatility gain an Empower and a Defense. Empower: Increases Multi-Hit Severity by 6%. Defense: Increases Glance Mitigation by 6%.
Optional AMP - Weaker version of Cruisin' for a Bruisin'. Currently weaker then a t2 Assault AMP and 2 armor pierce amps.
Hybrid A/U:
Tier 1’s
- Armor Pierce - 2/4/6%
Core AMPs - Should always be taken
- Landing a hit with a physical attack grants an empower. Empower: Increases damage dealt by 5% for 2 seconds.
Optional AMP- Strong AMP, however is currently inaccessible due to tier 2 amps.
Utility:
Tier 1’s
- CDR - 5/10/15%
Core AMPs - Should always be taken. - Dash Regen - 7/14/21%
Optional AMPs - Points can be put here to smooth out BioShell rotations.
- Dashing generates 15 volatility.
Core AMP. Mandatory in any Bio Shell build.
