Carmine's Engineering Guide for those Wanting to Learn
Hey Carmine here. Don?t read this if you don?t want to know how to play engineer good (I?m looking at you darn snipers).
To prove my merit as a good engineer: 78 hours of play time (I play all classes a lot just best with engineer), 41 max points, 34 max kills, 5234 max damage, 24:03 longest life, 16 most kills one of my sentries has gotten.
First off I will tell you some general tips of the trade.
1. YOU ARE NOT A COMBAT CLASS, DON'T RUN UP TO A HEAVY WITH YOUR SHOTGUN EXPECTING TO WIN. IT WON?T HAPPEN. Not unless you get very lucky...
2. Your shotgun is a very good weapon at close ranges but this is conflicting with the engineer's speed and hit points, the best use is to blast spies before they escape.
3. Don't underestimate your pistol. Ever wondered why you spawn with 212 shots for it? It's because you should use it. It is good for adding to the firepower of your sentry gun is it isn't being constantly damaged, another use for it is you should pull it out as soon as you see sticky bombs landing around your sentry, shoot them away before they can do too much damage.
4. Stay by your sentry. Only leave its side if you plan on building a really great teleporter exit. The other classes hate your sentry and will take it out in no time if it isn't being attended too.
5. Always build your dispenser before your sentry. Especially if you are in sudden death where there are no ammo boxes. The dispenser is just as crucial as any sentry gun but by no means always place it near a sentry. You can place it near the frontlines and it will probably get destroyed but burning teammates can run up and put out their fire, heavies and pyros can restore their ammo stores easily and scouts can stop by for a quick heal as medics don?t heal scouts often in my experience.
6. The Sentry is the best weapon at your disposal. At level 1 it is less then deadly and if the enemy is quick can take it out before it kills him, it is crucial that as soon as the level one is built you are ready to upgrade it to level two. Level two sentries have a bigger frame and always compensate for this when building a sentry around a corner as the enemy may be able to shoot it whereas they couldn?t fire at the level one. Level 3 is the ultimate in firepower, not even a heavy can match it in a firefight with its dual mini guns pushing back the enemy and shooting so fast they deal massive damage on their own, the missile turret is the icing on the cake and is about as powerful as a soldier rocket but travels faster and has a huge knockback.
7. Don't forget that your sentry can run out of ammo if you have left it un-attended or have died, Sentries that aren't shooting are not a dangerous thing to the enemy.
8. This gets to the point that sentries are very important to a successful defense as they are the ultimate in area denial. While it is true that a defense is possible without any engineers it is incredibly hard and takes a lot from your team when they could be attacking while the sentry does the job of multiple demo men/heavies.
9. Your wrench, the wrench is very powerful when you aren't using it to fix up your buildings. You can easily take out a spy in two hits with your wrench, although don?t go chasing the spy if your stuff is all being sapped, the shotgun is still your best medium-close range weapon.
10. The Blow Em Up button as I like to refer to it. You should use this as the place to defend changes or to just build something somewhere else as you please.
11. This is a point I want to stress. Just because you aren't getting many kills doesn?t mean you aren't playing a crucial part in the team. Setting up a sentry near the intelligence on 2fort doesn?t often get kills but most of the time prevents the enemy from capturing your Intel giving your team more time to do their job.
12. Regardless of what some people may think the engineer is not a mainly defensive class, the teleporters are crucial to a good offense as they keep the pressure on the enemy while sentries can be dropped in the middle of the team and kill a few of them before they take it out, in addition many enemies believe the attacking side will be undefended and rush in to get some kills, don?t let this happen and place your sentry to intercept the counter attackers.
13. You can turn a building object by right-clicking while having the blueprints out. It can help build your sentry near a wall but facing the other way without having to stand behind it, so no classes will be able to turn around it faster than its rotation speed. More than that, you can then stand on the sentry and spies won't be able to backstab you.
14. You can AND SHOULD help build other engies' sentries, for a level three sentry is stronger that two level one sentries. That is especially useful when defending in CP maps like dustbowl. If you see and unattended sentry being attacked heal it, for the sake of the team even if you hate the person who built the sentry.
15. Remember that you can hit your building with your wrench while they are auto-building to speed up the process, very useful sometimes but use your judgment to decide whether you need the building up now or you need to run and get more metal first.
16. Don?t forget that you can pick up dropped weapons for 100 metal. 2 dropped weapons will upgrade your sentry very nicely.
17. Try and remember where all the ammo boxes are placed on the map, they are most important to an engineer especially during the setup phase where you need a sentry up quick.
Strategic Sentry Placing: Remember to place your sentry guns away from corners as they can easily be shot by any class there, do not place a sentry in the plain open unless you have a very good reason as a sniper will easily take out you, your sentry, and all of your buildings. You can jump on a dispenser or sentry, which can let you build a teleporter in an otherwise inaccessible place. Then you can teleport there and build a sentry so the enemy will have to attack a place they can't even get to! The sentry gun lets you jump a bit higher than the dispenser even though it doesn?t look as tall. This is very useful as enemies hardly ever suspect death raining from on high and the sentry gun bubble covers a more area from on high just because it can shoot more places than on the ground. The high ground is always a good thing to have in any game and this goes double when placing your sentry! Remember too always think about the lay of the land, how big the sentry will be at level three, and how each of the classes may attack your sentry while you are placing it.
Here are the frames of the sentry guns, keep this in mind while you are placing as a level 1 is much smaller than a level 3.
Now moving on too how you should view other classes through the eyes of an engineer.
Scouts: Don't fret over these little guys too much, well it is true they are fast they still have not managed to outrun a sentry's bullets. Still they can kill you if you get too sure of yourself. If you aren't attending your sentry then can dodge out of the way before it kills them and then take it out with their pistols or scattergun. If you encounter one of these guys and aren't near your sentry then you should worry, but you do have one trick up your sleeve, Pull out your wrench and bash them on the head, a crit will instakill if you are lucky but 2 hits otherwise will do the job.
Soldiers: While these aren?t the highest on your list of enemies then can certainly be annoying. I do have to stress the point that if you aren't near your sentry they can easily take it out. The good thing about these guys is they are somewhat slow and can't dodge out of the way quickly enough if your sentry can draw a bead on them.
Pyros: Don't worry much about these guys either; do not try to confront with your weapons as that flamethrower is deadly. But against a sentry they stand almost no chance unless they are ubercharged and then depending on your placing you could be dead very quickly along with all your gear or just casually hitting your sentry giving it more ammo to push back the silly pyro. Just be careful where you place your sentry and you should not have a problem with these guys. Remember a pyro has to get close to a sentry to do damage and the sentry is pushing him back but not as fast as he is moving, if the enemy is using a lot of pyros set up your sentry farther away from halls and doors than you normally would. The pyro can kill you and all of your stuff easily without
Demo men: In my opinion these guys are the engineer's worst enemy, not the spy. 3 sticky bombs can make quick work of your sentry if you aren?t there to blow them away and the standard grenade launcher is still a pain. These guys are always trouble even when they aren't ubercharged (but you are going to face a challenge if he is ubered) A smart ubered demo will shoot you first as if you are a smart engineer you will not turn tail and run but instead blow off his sticky bombs until the uber wears off. But if you are not sure you can blow off the stickies run, you can just rebuild your sentry right when he moves on.
Heavies: If these guys get caught in the line of fire they are dead usually, even if the thick guy is ubercharged it will always depend on range with these guys. They can take your sentry out in a split second if they are point blank, ubercharged or not, but at medium range they just die. Once again you still shouldn?t engage him with your weapons unless you can jump on his head and hit him with the wrench.
Engineers: Well you won?t be running into these guys much as they are usually sticking to their sentries like you should, sometimes they may venture out to build a teleporter and if they know where you sentry is and you aren't there then that pistol of theirs can take your sentry out.
Medics: These guys are in my opinion your 3rd worst enemy; their ubercharges are annoying at the least and deadly at best. In addition their syringe guns have an easy time of taking out sentries on a ledge so you should hit them with shotgun blasts or wrench hits if they do that.
Snipers: These mongrels are not even worthy of my mention but for sake of completeness I will mention them... They shouldn't have an easy time of taking your stuff out unless it is easily visible AND unattended. And if one is running around you can take him down fairly easily without your sentry. However in the wide-open they are dangerous and should not be ignored during placement, they can take out you, dispensers, level one sentries, and teleporters in one shot.
Spies: These guys can really get on your nerves, trust me. They have sappers, the weapon that can only be used on YOUR buildings, if someone is suspicious shoot them. Hit sappers with your wrench to take them off and then repair but use your judgments on whether to kill the spy first or to take of the sappers, if teammates are nearby they will probably hunt down that spy for you but if you are all alone shoot him and then repair. First take the sapper off your sentry, then your dispenser, if a spy has gotten to you other enemies may not be far off and a level 3 sentry is much better at holding them off than a dispenser. But if you aren?t expecting any enemies soon get the dispenser first, it has less health and can get a sentry up quickly
Well I?m out; if you think I?m wrong then tell me so. I want to know so I can laugh at you while my sentry blasts you away...
Hey Carmine here. Don?t read this if you don?t want to know how to play engineer good (I?m looking at you darn snipers).
To prove my merit as a good engineer: 78 hours of play time (I play all classes a lot just best with engineer), 41 max points, 34 max kills, 5234 max damage, 24:03 longest life, 16 most kills one of my sentries has gotten.
First off I will tell you some general tips of the trade.
1. YOU ARE NOT A COMBAT CLASS, DON'T RUN UP TO A HEAVY WITH YOUR SHOTGUN EXPECTING TO WIN. IT WON?T HAPPEN. Not unless you get very lucky...
2. Your shotgun is a very good weapon at close ranges but this is conflicting with the engineer's speed and hit points, the best use is to blast spies before they escape.
3. Don't underestimate your pistol. Ever wondered why you spawn with 212 shots for it? It's because you should use it. It is good for adding to the firepower of your sentry gun is it isn't being constantly damaged, another use for it is you should pull it out as soon as you see sticky bombs landing around your sentry, shoot them away before they can do too much damage.
4. Stay by your sentry. Only leave its side if you plan on building a really great teleporter exit. The other classes hate your sentry and will take it out in no time if it isn't being attended too.
5. Always build your dispenser before your sentry. Especially if you are in sudden death where there are no ammo boxes. The dispenser is just as crucial as any sentry gun but by no means always place it near a sentry. You can place it near the frontlines and it will probably get destroyed but burning teammates can run up and put out their fire, heavies and pyros can restore their ammo stores easily and scouts can stop by for a quick heal as medics don?t heal scouts often in my experience.
6. The Sentry is the best weapon at your disposal. At level 1 it is less then deadly and if the enemy is quick can take it out before it kills him, it is crucial that as soon as the level one is built you are ready to upgrade it to level two. Level two sentries have a bigger frame and always compensate for this when building a sentry around a corner as the enemy may be able to shoot it whereas they couldn?t fire at the level one. Level 3 is the ultimate in firepower, not even a heavy can match it in a firefight with its dual mini guns pushing back the enemy and shooting so fast they deal massive damage on their own, the missile turret is the icing on the cake and is about as powerful as a soldier rocket but travels faster and has a huge knockback.
7. Don't forget that your sentry can run out of ammo if you have left it un-attended or have died, Sentries that aren't shooting are not a dangerous thing to the enemy.
8. This gets to the point that sentries are very important to a successful defense as they are the ultimate in area denial. While it is true that a defense is possible without any engineers it is incredibly hard and takes a lot from your team when they could be attacking while the sentry does the job of multiple demo men/heavies.
9. Your wrench, the wrench is very powerful when you aren't using it to fix up your buildings. You can easily take out a spy in two hits with your wrench, although don?t go chasing the spy if your stuff is all being sapped, the shotgun is still your best medium-close range weapon.
10. The Blow Em Up button as I like to refer to it. You should use this as the place to defend changes or to just build something somewhere else as you please.
11. This is a point I want to stress. Just because you aren't getting many kills doesn?t mean you aren't playing a crucial part in the team. Setting up a sentry near the intelligence on 2fort doesn?t often get kills but most of the time prevents the enemy from capturing your Intel giving your team more time to do their job.
12. Regardless of what some people may think the engineer is not a mainly defensive class, the teleporters are crucial to a good offense as they keep the pressure on the enemy while sentries can be dropped in the middle of the team and kill a few of them before they take it out, in addition many enemies believe the attacking side will be undefended and rush in to get some kills, don?t let this happen and place your sentry to intercept the counter attackers.
13. You can turn a building object by right-clicking while having the blueprints out. It can help build your sentry near a wall but facing the other way without having to stand behind it, so no classes will be able to turn around it faster than its rotation speed. More than that, you can then stand on the sentry and spies won't be able to backstab you.
14. You can AND SHOULD help build other engies' sentries, for a level three sentry is stronger that two level one sentries. That is especially useful when defending in CP maps like dustbowl. If you see and unattended sentry being attacked heal it, for the sake of the team even if you hate the person who built the sentry.
15. Remember that you can hit your building with your wrench while they are auto-building to speed up the process, very useful sometimes but use your judgment to decide whether you need the building up now or you need to run and get more metal first.
16. Don?t forget that you can pick up dropped weapons for 100 metal. 2 dropped weapons will upgrade your sentry very nicely.
17. Try and remember where all the ammo boxes are placed on the map, they are most important to an engineer especially during the setup phase where you need a sentry up quick.
Strategic Sentry Placing: Remember to place your sentry guns away from corners as they can easily be shot by any class there, do not place a sentry in the plain open unless you have a very good reason as a sniper will easily take out you, your sentry, and all of your buildings. You can jump on a dispenser or sentry, which can let you build a teleporter in an otherwise inaccessible place. Then you can teleport there and build a sentry so the enemy will have to attack a place they can't even get to! The sentry gun lets you jump a bit higher than the dispenser even though it doesn?t look as tall. This is very useful as enemies hardly ever suspect death raining from on high and the sentry gun bubble covers a more area from on high just because it can shoot more places than on the ground. The high ground is always a good thing to have in any game and this goes double when placing your sentry! Remember too always think about the lay of the land, how big the sentry will be at level three, and how each of the classes may attack your sentry while you are placing it.
Here are the frames of the sentry guns, keep this in mind while you are placing as a level 1 is much smaller than a level 3.
Now moving on too how you should view other classes through the eyes of an engineer.
Scouts: Don't fret over these little guys too much, well it is true they are fast they still have not managed to outrun a sentry's bullets. Still they can kill you if you get too sure of yourself. If you aren't attending your sentry then can dodge out of the way before it kills them and then take it out with their pistols or scattergun. If you encounter one of these guys and aren't near your sentry then you should worry, but you do have one trick up your sleeve, Pull out your wrench and bash them on the head, a crit will instakill if you are lucky but 2 hits otherwise will do the job.
Soldiers: While these aren?t the highest on your list of enemies then can certainly be annoying. I do have to stress the point that if you aren't near your sentry they can easily take it out. The good thing about these guys is they are somewhat slow and can't dodge out of the way quickly enough if your sentry can draw a bead on them.
Pyros: Don't worry much about these guys either; do not try to confront with your weapons as that flamethrower is deadly. But against a sentry they stand almost no chance unless they are ubercharged and then depending on your placing you could be dead very quickly along with all your gear or just casually hitting your sentry giving it more ammo to push back the silly pyro. Just be careful where you place your sentry and you should not have a problem with these guys. Remember a pyro has to get close to a sentry to do damage and the sentry is pushing him back but not as fast as he is moving, if the enemy is using a lot of pyros set up your sentry farther away from halls and doors than you normally would. The pyro can kill you and all of your stuff easily without
Demo men: In my opinion these guys are the engineer's worst enemy, not the spy. 3 sticky bombs can make quick work of your sentry if you aren?t there to blow them away and the standard grenade launcher is still a pain. These guys are always trouble even when they aren't ubercharged (but you are going to face a challenge if he is ubered) A smart ubered demo will shoot you first as if you are a smart engineer you will not turn tail and run but instead blow off his sticky bombs until the uber wears off. But if you are not sure you can blow off the stickies run, you can just rebuild your sentry right when he moves on.
Heavies: If these guys get caught in the line of fire they are dead usually, even if the thick guy is ubercharged it will always depend on range with these guys. They can take your sentry out in a split second if they are point blank, ubercharged or not, but at medium range they just die. Once again you still shouldn?t engage him with your weapons unless you can jump on his head and hit him with the wrench.
Engineers: Well you won?t be running into these guys much as they are usually sticking to their sentries like you should, sometimes they may venture out to build a teleporter and if they know where you sentry is and you aren't there then that pistol of theirs can take your sentry out.
Medics: These guys are in my opinion your 3rd worst enemy; their ubercharges are annoying at the least and deadly at best. In addition their syringe guns have an easy time of taking out sentries on a ledge so you should hit them with shotgun blasts or wrench hits if they do that.
Snipers: These mongrels are not even worthy of my mention but for sake of completeness I will mention them... They shouldn't have an easy time of taking your stuff out unless it is easily visible AND unattended. And if one is running around you can take him down fairly easily without your sentry. However in the wide-open they are dangerous and should not be ignored during placement, they can take out you, dispensers, level one sentries, and teleporters in one shot.
Spies: These guys can really get on your nerves, trust me. They have sappers, the weapon that can only be used on YOUR buildings, if someone is suspicious shoot them. Hit sappers with your wrench to take them off and then repair but use your judgments on whether to kill the spy first or to take of the sappers, if teammates are nearby they will probably hunt down that spy for you but if you are all alone shoot him and then repair. First take the sapper off your sentry, then your dispenser, if a spy has gotten to you other enemies may not be far off and a level 3 sentry is much better at holding them off than a dispenser. But if you aren?t expecting any enemies soon get the dispenser first, it has less health and can get a sentry up quickly
Well I?m out; if you think I?m wrong then tell me so. I want to know so I can laugh at you while my sentry blasts you away...
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Long, yet full of good tips and tricks
I figured people would know the very basics but I plan on editing all of the clan's tips in to make an ultimate engineering guide!
