Rapid Fire Engi - Guide 1.5

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1

This is a pretty straight forward Engi build which gives the Engi as a gun user a bit more edge than the usual drone heavy or striker builds. It utilizes Rapid Fire and near max Beacon in combination with Hastebot, concussive Crash, Spidermines and a minimal Drone setup.
I wouldnt call it an exceptionally beginner friendly build but it is also not super niche. Engi just needs more custom auged items and therefore paladium investment if you want to be good with guns.

First here is the skilltree:

https://london2038.com/skill-planner/#Engineer,50,50,0,v1.0000173660000031221220000185100000

Now the planner is outdated and the final few points can be placed differently depending on your taste and since the Engi often uses Cast weapons you might have more points to distribute.

The main line goes like this:
-Max out Rapid Fire, Hastebot and concussive crash
-put the minimum of points into the drone to reach tactical mode, medpack retrofit and repairmode
-get escape
-distribute the remaining points between Beacon and Spidermines

Skill usage:

The main attack combo is first concussive crash, whichs stuns alot of enemies which often bunch up on your drone and does very good damage. Since the mobs are stunned now, your drone doesnt take that much damage while it shoots its 3m splash projectiles and you can safely follow up with Spidermines and then a full blast of Rapid fire into the lot. There is not much that can survive this. On heavy HP elites or Bosses beacon comes first.

For easymode clearing you get away with gunning and spamming concussive crash and dropping in some spidermines here and there. I often use them to kill stuff i run past.
Spidermines are very situational to use and you dont really spam them. They need to be positioned well so they hit the right target and not wander off to kill some zombies.

The drones skills come into play when the going gets tougher like in St Pauls, or Catas. There you need to repair it often and activate medpack to boost your resistance. Besides the heal the shield recharge comes in handy and prevents being getting affected by status effects so often.
Tactical mode even if it is questionable if it increases the rate of fire is still usefull as the drone shoots more reliably when it is not running around like a chicken.

With this setup the engi can really push forward and make use of movement speed and implement a quicker than usual gameplay while he can still allways retreat behind his little tank.
He has alot of aoe and supports it with rapid fire from a far and point blank (see weapon choices below).
You could use Bomberbot and Ghostly strike instead of Inhibitor bots and concussive crash. However Bomber cost more power and we already use alot. Also the aoe on concussive crash is bigger AND it is easier to use as you can see where it is dropping.

Perks: All stats (start identifying items early for the Willpower Perk after 2000 identified items)

Expertise: I prefer Crit, Elemental Attack, some Elemental Defense, HP or Power/Reg if needed

Gear:

Now this is the hardest part. The engi wants to have Minion Damage everywhere but he also wants to use MM style damage gear. This means either compromises are being made or it gets expensive quickly as MM gear ususally doesnt have Minion damage.
AND you are likely to run into stat problems unless you get some stat augs aswell. You will realize that every point counts with Accu being the main issue. So here we go:

-Helmet: Eye of the Maverick or Sombergs Guise with +1, godly would be a minion damage aug too. You can get away with a Heavenly+1+Minion damge Helmet or a good Legendary with some damage +1, Minion damage and maybe a stat - a good Helmet is the hardest part.
https://wiki.london2038.com/Eyes_of_the_Maverick
https://wiki.london2038.com/Somberg's_Guise

-Torso: Techa Battlecore is definitly the best choice for this build. Massive Minion damage, Accu and userate to get that concussive crash spam going.
https://wiki.london2038.com/Techa_Battlecore

Those two are the most important items. Out of the following you need to make sure one item has shield penetration, so that status effect from you, the bots and the drone gets applied even if mobs are shielded. One needs to have movement speed and most likely one has to have ALOT of stats.

-Shoulder: Techa Bladeguard are a very good choice if you can aug Minion Damage on them, They got damage, caste damage, crit damage and physical damage (lookout for 5-7%). They use alot of stats and dont bring any - so hard to equip. Advanced Scout Shoulderplates also need a minion damage aug but they bring armor penetration, +AA and can come with some increased damage aswell. Sues Steadiers are ok too though fall behind. I’d rather take some legendary Cybernet Shoulderpads over them. If they come with Minion Damage and stats they will be fine.
https://wiki.london2038.com/Techa_Bladeguards
https://wiki.london2038.com/Advanced_Scout_Shoulderplates
https://wiki.london2038.com/SuE_Steadiers

-Arms: One would likely say Duellos of the Duelist. They come with 3% Crit, +Acc and can have increase damage aswell. They need a Minion Damage aug too and it won’t be the highest one because of the ilevel. Now the Techa guards are normally a neglected item but in this case they are not that bad. They come with alot of stamina which we also need, added damage and just 1% crit. But we are not getting that high critdamage values anyways. Getting more health for the drone can also free up some drone options. Needs a Minion damage aug too but here it can get 40%+. A legendary cybernet item with stats and Minion damage is a cheaper option.
https://wiki.london2038.com/Duellos_of_the_Duelist
https://wiki.london2038.com/Techa_Gauntlet

-Belt: Either Techa belt with Minion damage aug or a Cybernet legendary. I would invest into the techa after all other items.
https://wiki.london2038.com/Techa_Band

-Legs:Now the Techa unique is ok but doesnt bring anything needed over a legendary Cybernet and needs a Minion damage aug. Legendary ones can come directly with Minion damage and offer the same damage and crit. If you happen to aug Minion damage on good Lanzers Longrunners with shield pene this opens up some options as you can tick off the shield pene and movement speed issue.
https://wiki.london2038.com/Lanzer's_Longrunners
https://wiki.london2038.com/TechaWeave

-Boots: There are two options, either Techa Deathstompers with Minion Damage as they are the only “damage” items that comes with shield pene. Needs the minion damage aug again and doesnt have Movement speed which is an issue. I prefer at least one bigger movement speed affix somewhere so this would lead to the dye kit in that case which is suboptimal since there are other good dye kits. Here some compromises have to be made, hence i mentioned Lanzers. Or you get Quatermaster Boots with shield pene, of course Minion damage and Movement speed.
https://wiki.london2038.com/Techa_Deathstompers

You see it gets a bit more tricky on the Engi and decisions between damage, minion damage, shield pene, Stats and movement speed have to be made wisely.

-Trinket: depending on your Minion damage, either a Fulcrum Scale for boosting your and the minions damage or Squadros Ring (preferably a phase one)/Dark Master to boost your own damage.

-Dye: Highly dependant on your gear. If you dont have Movement Speed i would go for Wasp if you dont have Shield pene go for Twilight, otherwise either Scorched or the Crit Multi one.

Weapons:

Since we are using Rapid Fire, we should go for slower weapons as Rate of Fire caps somehwere between 700 and 800 and we get a 3,35 multiplier on rate of fire with Rapid.
I allways have two sets of weapons, one for single damage and one for AOE.

For single damage you can use either Railguns or Jackhammers (with Gaus being the Meta atm). I use a combination of Nantos and Reapers Hellrail and they work nicely together. I stuff ele damage/phase mods into the Reapers so they apply Phase with the field. The Nantos get one ignite mod and the rest damage. They dont have splash and ignite is only needed for bosses anyways. Both weapons start at low ilevels so can be auged a bit more cheaper.
They utilize Rapid fire nicely in that they apply Phase,Shock,Ignite and Poison easily due to the high rate of fire.
Make sure you have some elemental damage in there because those mods need willpower and you need alot of power.
https://wiki.london2038.com/Reaper's_Hell_Rail
https://wiki.london2038.com/Nanto's_Third_Rail
https://wiki.london2038.com/Gau's_Equalizer

Now for the AOE set we look out for Global weapons. Grenade Launchers are good but we have a new gem and that is a global XM272 Thermocannon. This thing is nuts. It comes with 12m splash and when fired with Rapid fire it can take out the whole area between the stairs and the temple in a Rift. With rapid fire, it is Fire and Forget. I heavily invest in phase too, it looks cool when suddenly all goes purple and it also supports the following concussive crash when mobs are phased.
I want to test out the new unique Withering Tube but didnt come across one so far.
https://wiki.london2038.com/Withering_Tube

The third set is a cast set with two 1handers that have either hastebot or drone skills on them. With Drone skills beware that you have that set selected if the drone is out and you go from a station into a map.

Drone:

For the Drone i dont go for anything fancy or hard to come by because there is still a rare bug where your Drone loses its gear. Therefore i go for a widely availabe Mirs Anger as Armor (it comes with +9/10 AA) and as a weapon i use a 4slot Infernous. I use Aladdins Final Wish (what else can i use) but you can also use a global one. Infernous is imho the perfect Drone weapon, due to its hard homing nature and high AOE (as opposed to the Leech Launcher). Put your Drone in tactical mode so it shoots more reliably. It adds alot of damage to your arsenal and you dont run into stat problems even in the minimal setup. It is ramping damage, so it needs to build up, be aware of that. But even if it kills some low hp mob the projectile wanders on and applies damage to the next mob. Not much is wasted.
It is a little less in DPS than the Leech Launcher which is widely used but way better when the Drone gets swamped due to its AOE.
https://wiki.london2038.com/Mir's_Anger
https://wiki.london2038.com/Aladdin's_Final_Wish

A few words on the Drones stats. Dont go havoc on assigning your Attribute points because until now they cant be reskilled! I waited until i could fit the Mirs Anger and then only put in a cheap Cabalist gun until i was ready for the infernous. And then i only put in a few points to make it work. We are running a minimal Drone setup so attr points are tight. The Majority of points i put in when my Char hit 50.

Here we go. I think the build is very versatile and uses alot of the Engis arsenal. It is skill use heavy but has alot of very satisfying buttons to press :slight_smile:

Have fun!

(gonna put up a video soon)

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Currently investigating a Phase Nova for the minimal Drone since it got its rate of fire doubled. It looks awesome to have a pulsating purple thingy running around. But i cant fit two range/phase mods in without investing too many attribute points atm. And it Catas in needs additional phase. In Brompton on agrressive mode it clears on its own, lol. You just have to repair from afar.

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I did a few damage tests and the best and most practical single damage rotation is rapid fire and Spidermines on cd. Having concussive crash is not adding alot and is just another recast to add into the rotaion with damage downtimes while casting.

So this brought me to the idea, what about replacing Inhibitors in bossfights for a damaging bot since they are not doing alot through the fight. I just want to spend 1 point into it so what bot gives me the most for 1 point and optionally a cast set +3?
And the winner are Nanobots! They actually added more dps to the Gatekeeper fight than the other two. I was watching my drone fighting Gatekeeper and only repairing it and the dps of drone went form 200-300 to 300-500, whereas the other bots stayed just a chunk above 300.
So there you go, Nanobots - they are in with 1 point and a +3 cast slot.

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Another Minmaxing update.

I am currently using a Global XM271 Thermocannon for everything but bosses. This clears out all trash and can damage high hp elites though killing them with the Thermo is taking a bit too long even with Rapid Fire. But therefore we have spidermines which deal with every elite perfectly.
Now for the bosses like said i use 2 Railguns but i found 2 Jackhammers increase your boss Dps by around 20%, probably more with Gaus or better ones than i currently have. So i switched to them. I dont really like the feel of Jackhammers but i only use them for bossfights at close range anyways - and they are better. They are also a bit lower on stat costs which comes in very handy when trying to fit out the Engi with the proper Minion Dam augs on MM gear.

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As for the Nanobots, you dont need a cast set as the number of bots a) decreases again when you switch back and b) it seem there is only 1 nanobot infesting a mob at a time and 2 dont have a higher infesting rate. So it is clearly a 1 point wonder. And a benchmark for a bossfight: can you kill the boss during the nanobot phase? I am positive for the first 3 Cata bosses at least.

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Soooo, my Engi changed a bit but i think not enough to make a new build. it also doesnt mean the old build isnt working anymore or is worse. Neither is the case.

But i figured i want to change the playstyle a bit after having rapid bombed numerous Catas with my Thermocannon. And i allways wanted to make a Nanobots build. The old build already incorporated Nanobots for bosses and that was an important change since they offer quite a bit of additional DPS on bosses over any other bots and they shock reliably which is especally nice on bosses with their special attacks. But due to the 1 point investment their uptime may not be fully continuous on all bosses.

The problem i allways had with a full Nanobot build was that they seemed not all be active at a time. I never saw all 5 bots producing a beacon at time. Furthermore you never really oversee where they infest mobs. Alot of the time it is a mob far away or even behind you and then they sit there forever.

The first issue is still the same though i think sometimes the beacon is just not shown and mobs are still infested even though hey dont show a beacon. AND with 5 nanobots the infesting rate seems to be alot higher.

The second issue i have kindof solved with an idea that came up after i have changed my MM to Tropical Storms. It suddenly made click on how to get around the randomness of the Nanobot targeting.
On Hit novas are the solution and a high rof fire weapon. Novas cover a huge range on the battlefield and they spread out in all directions. So the chances are high to hit even far away mobs that have been targeted by Nanobots (and with crowded packs of mobs they are an replacement for splash damage). In return on being triggered they get released and can infest a new target. The result is a waaaay better performance of them. You see alot more electro explosions. And thus Nanobots become an additional aoe weapon for clearing as they leave an electric field which is quite strong. And it also feels like you are doing more weapon damage which is nice as Engis dont do that much damage with their guns. I love it.

Now what changed?
I got rid of Rapid fire. I would have left a point in it but i dont have any slot free since i also want to use Tactical Stance. The freed up points went in to max Nanobots and a point in Tactical Stance and whatever is leftover in Beacon. Thats it.
Then i switched to two Tropical Storms (i currently even have only 2 slot ones). They also solve my issue of movement speed and made me change the Jade Dykit to Wasp for even more minion damage. You can of course use another high rate of fire weapon and aug a nova on it or drop in a mod. But an on hit nova on each weapon is needed. And Tropicals are so practical with their three inherent damage types and other benefits like boost rate.

Also when you have a gun with a certain damage type you can double the procc chance of the correpsonding effect by adding an affix of that damage type somewhere (you get one procc chance from the inherent damage type and one for the added). Tropicals have physical/stun, fire/ignite and toxic/poison. Therefore you can also aug additional sfx for ignite, poison and stun and by adding the corresponding damage types you get very good procc chances. I also recommend a squadro phase trinket so you have phase coverd (besides the drone). Now you can add additional sfx to your weapons as of your liking and you will get very good procc chances due to their high rate of fire nature.
I often get everything procced at the same time. It is quite fun to customise Tropicals and decide what type of sfx you want to emphasize.

So there is that. Rapid changed for Nanobots and Tropicals as main weapon. Now you may ask why 3 bots? Nanobots, Hastebot AND Inhibitor Bots?

That is of course a matter of taste. But i figured Haste is something you want for maximum boss damage and Maps that dont need that much AOE and for parties. On clearing Catas or Australia Inhibitors are alot more applicable. In fact they support Nanobots very well as slowed and stunned mobs are infested more easily.
So most of the time i run around with Nanos and Inhibitors/Concussive Crash when clearing and switch to Haste/Nanobots on bosses. Not having Haste on makes a difference on you gun damage but your Nanos help you out on that and still feels like your guns do damage and then you have a nice aoe inhibitor crash in your arsenal.

I have so far killed all Bosses but the Mythical ones with that setup. Cata 1-15 including Morax ( i just did him after his second dig in). Quavantius (hint, concussive crash can permastun him), Dessi solo (Drone and Nanos fuck him up), Dod solo, T-3000. They all went down and sometimes Haste bot was the play and sometimes Inhibitors. I have like around 350% minion damage on my gear and additional 50% on my cast set. I do have a +1 min dam Maverick though. But my Tropcials are only 2 slots.

Also last tip, since you have to cast Nanos every minute or so it kindof plays out (not 100% sure) to cast them with your drone casting set which should be stuffed with alot of minion damage mods.

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