2017 Engineer Guide

****** STILL WORK IN PROGRESS - got bored of editing a TXT*****

Introduction

It has been quite a while and quite a few things have changed, so in light of having actual new players in the game I'm endeavoring to compile a fully up-to-date engineer guide, both froob and and beyond. My main has been an engineer since 2009 and I played it predominantly ever since.
It is by no means intended to replace Muha's magnum opus, and I would say it is mostly accurate, but at the same time very out of date in many areas. So I recommend checking both guides, but whenever there is conflicting information, I'd recommend to take this guide's advice.

The role of the Engineer
Why pick engineer? Well the correct answer is that because it is fun. Do not pick it for any other reason. If YOU think that engi is your thing, then pick it.
Engineer is a pet profession. Unsurprisingly that means that most of the time you will be controlling a single pet (froobs) or two pets (expansion). Engineer is a combat-oriented, high DPS, team support profession with an affinity for tradeskilling (crafting). Compared to the other pet professions, the Metaphysicist and the Bureaucrat, Engineer is more of a "tough guy" combat profession and less support.

Engineers start out as one of the best solo professions (the robot is a great tank, holds aggro and hits hard), but that ability diminishes around level 150. In the endgame (both for froob and expansion) Engineer takes a lot of skill to solo in PVM. In team situations, it is one of the highest DPS professions with tools and abilities that make the whole team tougher.

In PVP, Engineer is a formidable contender, its unique set of tools require a different approach to defeat it, but in turn it also takes a lot of skill to utilize your strenghths to beat others. However it is team/mass PVP where this profession truly shines. It's toolset makes the Engineer an exceptionally useful member in PVP teams.

Engineer is second most capable tradeskiller as a froob (following the Trader) and on par with the Trader as an expansion player.

Engineer nanos

This section will not aim to cover all nanos, but to give a few details on the most important nanolines. I will also be mentioning the changes that came with the 18.7 patch.

Targeted buffs

• Gift of Assurance: It is a moderately useful nanoline, the big armor class buff reduces the damage you take from mobs after all. On the other hand it is a massive NCU hog, and you will find that people quite often shout at you for spamming their NCU. Can be cast on pets too.
• Rapid Weapon: A nice init buff line, but most people will consider it NCU spam. Useless on pets as it buffs ranged init only.
• Entropy Weapon: While not the best engi damage buff, this one is not self-only and can be cast on pets.
• Plasma Shield: Almost completely useless line, a huge NCU hog with very little benefits.

Self-only buffs

• Boosted Tendons: a self-only nano and is quite useful due to its init buff part. With the other init buff, you can 1/1 the engi pistols at full def without a single IP spent on Ranged Init. at lvl 220.
• Engineer Composite Specialist Tradeskills
  The top nano is very nice, giving a big boost to tradeskills. It does not stack with any other buffs (including Philosopher's stone!) for the affected tradeskills.
• Isochronal Sloughing Assault Shield
  The signature engineer nano line and probably the most useful one: blockers nullify non-perk attacks up to a certain number. Since 18.7 the top nano gives 9 special blockers and 1 normal attack blocker, making this line useful in PVM as well (in PVM only the normal attack blocker works). The 'Isochronal' nanos refresh blockers every 30 seconds, while the froob-friendly ones have to be recast once they get used up. Only the top nano gives the normal attack blocker.
• Slayerdroid Transference: This nano morphs the engineer into a white slayerdroid. A nice novelty nano, that makes the MA engi viable. Since the 18.7 patch it gives 400 Martial Arts, 50 Brawling, 50 Fast attack and 50 Multi Melee. Because of the special melee attack buff, it can be useful for twinking as well.

Team special attack absorbers
Top nano: Improved Isochronal Sloughing Combat Field
The team version of the above nanos, they are insanely useful in team PVP. Since 18.7 top nano gives the team 4 special attack blockers and 1 normal attack blocker, making engineers much more desirable in PVM than before the patch (while nerfing its power in PVP). The 'Isochronal' nanos refresh blockers every 60 seconds, while the froob-friendly ones have to be recast once they get used up. Only the top nano gives the normal attack blocker.

Beacon Warp and Team Beacon Warp
Taxi please! The nano warps team members to the engineer as long as both the engi and the team member is on RK. A few dungeons on RK (notably TOTW, IS and Tara) prohibit warping. While amazingly useful especially for tower wars, it is also hilarious if you warp people to hostile places ;)

Engineer friendly auras
These are multiple nanolines that technically are in the same line, so you can run only one of them. They buff yourself, your team members and your pets as well. Arguably the most useful is Sympathetic Entropy Infusion which gives a small damage boost, or maybe Sympathetic Fortress Screen if you need that extra AC at low levels, maybe Sympathetic Reactive Cocoon if you duel versus shades, but Sympathetic Plasma Shielding is definitely useless.

Engineer hostile auras
These nano lines do not stack with each other (highest stacking is the reflect ripper line). Interestingly, the debuff component of the nanos and the aura components are in the same nanoline which means, that as long as you have the NSD aura running, you are immune to the blind aura of hostile engineers. You will not be immune to hostile NSD though.
While the aura projects the hostile component automatically, you have to "spam" the aura nano, beucase the projection only happens every 20 seconds. Despite checking for 100% nanoresist, it lands quite easily because aura type nanos check nanoresist differently. This is true for the other hostile auras as well.
Reflect ripper line
Top nano: Null Space Disruptor
The real reason of PTSD for soldiers. The top nano reduces reflects by 48% which are the primary defenses of soldiers and secondary defenses of NTs, engis and many others. Almost useless in PVM, because bosses like The Beast, Urquhart the Absorber, Ground Chief Aune, The Nightmare Phobettor etc. are immune to this effect (and even if the aura nano lands on them, they usually have 200+ reflects). It is also the leading cause of unwanted PVP flag for engineers.
Blind line
Top nano: Disruptive Void Projector
It is a hostile aura that reduces attack rating by a large amount (-1210 AR for the top nano) as well as blinding nearby targets. However it breaks on a leet sneezing on the other side of Rubi-Ka. Breaking means that the debuff gets removed on taking damage, nano casting etc. with 100% chance. In practice however, the nano can sometimes stick on the target for longer, but usually never more than a few seconds. Still, this is one of the few crowd control nanos for engineers. If you go solo and aggro adds, this is how you survive. It is insanely useful to keep the tank alive in case too many adds are pulled (especially in alien sectors). Make sure you spam the blind after the enf casts mongo, because the taunt removes the blind effect.
Does not stack with the other hostile auras and has the lowest stacking order. The debuff component does not stack with NT blinds, in fact it removes them from the affected mob.
Shield damage reducer
Top nano: Disruptive Retributive Negator
Reduces shield damage by the amount. NOT PERCENTAGE. The top nano reduces shield damage by 61 points. Wow. I judge this nanoline useless. Does not stack with other hostile auras and has the second highest stacking order.

Pet heals
Top nano: Master's Repairs AND A Maker's Touch
Since 18.7, Master's Repairs heals BOTH pets (no targeting needed) by 10% got its own cooldown, so the second best heal can be spammed (recharge was reduced to 1.00s) while the 10% heal is on cooldown. These two heals combined are an amazing boost to engineers' solo potential and soldiers can no longer take revenge on your dog.

Pet AOE snare buffs
Top nano: Intrusive Aura of the Slave
These nanos can be cast on both pets, giving them a snare aura which is useful as a form of crowd control in PVM and occasionally in PVP. Ironically it is most useful versus other engineers. More importantly however, it gives an additional attack rating buff to the pets (130 for the top one). Can be removed by the Intrusive Aura Cancellation nano.

Formula 22
It is a seemingly small initiative buff for pets, but that is all what you need to make pets cap their attack speed combined with the trimmer effects. Therefore it is a must-have. Since 18.7 it also makes your pets gain more aggro. Since the aggro buff is flat, more attacks means more aggro. Since the dog attacks faster than the KFC bot, this nano makes the dog more susceptible for taking unwanted aggro than before. Why it buffs ranged and nano init is a mystery though.

Pet defensive nanos
Top nano: Advanced Software Hacking Shielding
Makes the pets harder to mezz and charm (though this effect is barely noticable), gives some AC buffs and the 300 AAD makes it a little harder for mobs to crit pets. Not really worth using in PVM because you have to buff your pet NCU to fit this in.

Pet AR and damage buffs
Top nano: Omni-Pol Pacification Logic System
The best pet buff, it significantly increases pet attack rating (446 for the top nano). Because pet "weapons" do not have MBS (their weapon damage scales with attack rating indefinitely), this nano does not make them land hits more frequently but also increases their damage significantly. The nano also buffs AAD and root/snare resist a bit, but that is negligible. The non-shop nanos are dyna loot only.

Pet Snare/Root Resistance Buff
Top nano: Coherent Polarized Screening
Gives nano resist and a large (65%) snare and root resist. Theoretically your pet can have 77% root resist, in practice you will notice it works only around 30% of the time. Still quite good. Dyna loot only.

(Improved) Shield of the Obedient Servant
The improved one gives 280 attack rating to pets and 150 additional damage on top of that. Very good nano. 18.7 increased its duration to 10 minutes and one cast casts it on both pets. The smaller version drops from the Obedience Enforcer.

Pet debuff removers
Pet Cleanse: removes almost all debuffs and crowd control from both pets. After 18.7 this nano fills in for the removed HHAB ring effect. It has a 3 minute cooldown. An absolute must-have.
Pet Attention: removes root, snare and mezz from pets, can be spammed. An absolute must-have. Makes other reducer nanos useless.
Pet Steal Back: removes charms from pets. Even if you steal back the pet from the annoying crat, they will return without buffs. How annoying. Also has 20m or 10m (improved) cooldown. Meh.

Pet proc nanos
Master's Bidding: a 25% chance proc for 3335 cold damage. Since it works only in PVP, the actual damage is 1668. In my experience it it does not trigger on every 4th hit, even though the database says so. Still, it is extremely useful in PVP, especially vs evader profs.
Sedative Injectors: introduced in 18.7, gives an 5% chance for pets to proc a -1200 runspeed snare. Since it does not stack with Master's Bidding, this nano is useless in PVP. Has no real use in PVM either.

Skills

If you want to make a complete character, you have to know your s..t. You have to know how to be useful in combat even if you want to make a tradeskill inclined character, and you have to know tradeskills even if you make a PVP character. That is why I will not recommend any skill path to choose, because I believe, that you have to determine where you want to end up, but to reach there you might better choose a different setup. Don't be 100% tradeskiller from the get go, or you will not be able to level. Who needs someone in a levelling team who can't do any damage, but can build an implant? I think you get the point. So instead, let me go through the skills, share my idea about them, so you can decide it yourself instead of me telling you what to build. I have highlighted a number of skills though, that are extremely poor choices for engineers. You will notice those.

Body & Defense

• Body Dev. - Important skill, but not necessary to max it always. Adds to your max hp (amount is based on your breed). For PVP builds (at pretty much any level), you must always max it.
• Nano Pool - Do not IP this, unless you have problems having enough max nano to cast pets. You can put a little IP here in the early levels to be able to cast much higher level bots, but can be reset at higher levels.
• Evade-Clsc - The main role of this skill is to get less crits from monsters/players. Engi cannot really be played as an evader profession. IP only when there is an abundance of IP, or for PVP builds. Max it for endgame PVM though.
• Dodge-Rng - The main role of this skill is to get less crits from monsters/players. Engi cannot really be played as an evader profession. IP only when there is an abundance of IP, or for PVP builds. Max it for endgame PVM though.
• Duck-Exp - The main role of this skill is to get less crits from monsters/players. Engi cannot really be played as an evader profession. IP only when there is an abundance of IP, or for PVP builds. You can ignore this skill.
• Nano Resist - IP only for PVP. Not much use in PVM.
• Deflect - At 3000 skill you get 10% chance for a glancing normal hit (half damage) or completely dodging an Aimed Shot. Realistically you can get about 1500 in this skill, which translates to an 5% chance, which is not worth in my opinion. Especially that you have blockers to nullify aimed shots. IP is tight and you have better skills to spend on.

Melee Weapons

• 1h Blunt - Avoid like the plague.
• 1h Edged - Avoid like the plague.
• Piercing - Avoid like the plague.
• 2h Blunt - Avoid like the plague.
• 2h Edged - Avoid like the plague.
• Melee Ener. - Avoid like the plague.
• Martial Arts - See the weapon choices section
• Multi Melee - Avoid like the plague.
• Melee Init. - Avoid like the plague.
• Physic Init. - The initiative skill for martial arts. For every 600 skill your attack speed gets reduced by 1s and recharge by 2s. Note that for martial arts, the fist "weapon" gets slower the higher the MA skill, so need to IP this for MA builds to keep quick attacks.

Melee Specials

• Sneak Attack - The melee equivalent of Aimed Shot. Avoid like the plague.
• Brawling - A short recharge, low damage attach that has the chance to stun. Only viable with MA build.
• Fast Attack - A fast recharge extra attack. Avoid like the plague.
• Dimach - A very slow recharge, large damage, unavoidable attack. Avoid like the plague.
• Riposte - A skill that does not serve any purpose for any prof. other than Keeper. Avoid like the plague.

Ranged Weapons

• Pistol - See the weapon choices section
• Bow - Avoid like the plague.
• MG/SMG - Avoid like the plague.
• Assault Rif - See the weapon choices section
• Shotgun - See the weapon choices section
• Rifle - Avoid like the plague.
• Ranged Ener - See the weapon choices section
• Grenade - See the weapon choices section
• Heavy Weapons - Avoid like the plague.
• Multi Ranged - See the weapon choices section
• Ranged Init. - The initiative skill for ranged weapons. For every 600 skill your attack speed gets reduced by 1s and recharge by 2s. Engineers have huge item and buff support for ranged init, so it is a relatively low-priority skill.

Ranged Specials
For detailed ranged special attack mechanics, see this guide: http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...-soldier-Guide

• Fling Shot - A fast recharge extra attack. Can crit. Low priority.
• Aimed Shot - An almost unavoidable, large damage attack. For engineers it is only useful in PVP. can crit. It has a damage cap of 13000.
• Burst - An attack using 3 ammo (3x damage) calculated as a single number damage.
• Full Auto - Similar to burst, except that the number of bullets shot are dependent on your FA skill. It has a damage cap of 15000.
• Bow Spc Att - Used only for certain arrows. Avoid like the plague.
• Sharp Obj - Only real use is Kizzermole Gumboils in low level PVP. Avoid like the plague.

Nanos & Casting

• Matt.Metam - The nanoskill to cast AC buffs, shields, auras, damage buffs, most pet buffs. High priority.
• Bio Metamor - Only used for pet heals. Put only as much IP that allows you to cast top pet heal. Completely avoid it in low levels.
• Psycho Modi - Used for skill-increasing buffs and blind aura. Low priority.
• Sensory Impr - Used for skill-increasing buffs. Put in only as much to be able to cast buffs. Low priority.
• Time&Space - Top priority skill for engineer. Used for casting pets and many other buffs. Always max.
• Matter Crea - Top priority skill for engineer. Used for casting pets and many other buffs. Always max.
• NanoC. Init. - Helps you cast nanos faster. Low priority. Max it in pvp to be able to spam auras and remove debuffs from your pets even when your inits are debuffed. Every 200 skill lowers the nano attack time by 1s (up to 1200 skill, above that it takes 600 skill for 1s). Recharge is unaffected.

Exploring

• Vehicle Air - Avoid like the plague.
• Vehicle Ground - Avoid like the plague.
• Vehicle Water - Avoid like the plague.
• Run Speed - Always put some IP in it to run faster. If you have enough spare IP, max it.
• Adventuring - Avoid like the plague.

Combat & Healing

• Perception - Helps you to see some concealed players (that are not agents or shades that is). Only real use is to be able to hotswap AS scope. Useless in PVM.
• Concealment - Avoid like the plague.
• Psychology - Important tradeskill to combine alien armor, plant some NW towers, and assemble some JOBE implants.
• Trap Disarm. - Useless. Avoid like the plague.
• First Aid - Put IP in it to be able to use stims. Low priority, increase only with spare IP. No need to max it at any level.
• Treatment - Always max this.

Trade & Repair

• Mech. Engi - One of the key tradeskills for engineer. If you are a tradeskiller or using the endgame engineer pistols, this skill must be maxed. Important skill for trimmers too.
• Elec. Engi - Another signature engineer tradeskill, but IP only if you are a tradeskiller, or plan to use the Dreadloch Remodulator.
• Quantum FT - Used for some JOBE implants, nano crystal assembly, and some other tradeskills. The attack rating increasing trimmer requires this skill, so put some in it even if you are not a tradeskiller.
• Chemistry - Used mainly for alien armor assembly and some JOBE implants. Used as attack rating for a very good perk (Chemical Blindness), so might worth maxing it as an expansion PVPer.
• Weapon Smt - Used to assemble / upgrade weapons. Only IP it as a tradeskiller.
• Nano Progra - Main skill to assemble implants. If engineer is your first-ever character, max this, so you can make your own implants. Otherwise only max it if you specialize on tradeskills.
• Tutoring - Seemingly useless, it enables you to use tutoring devices, that increase a certain tradeskill for a short time. Used for twinking computer literacy. Helps a bit with tradeskills. Generally I'd avoid putting IP in it, unless you are a 100% tradeskiller. But then you will not need it anyway. With the right items, it is possible to push it up to 800-950 without spending IP on it.
• Break&Entry - Used to certain tradeskills, and can open chests in missions. If engineer is your first character, it might worth putting some IP in it so you can get more loot from missions.
• Comp. Liter - Used to equip NCU memories, and some high end stuff. Max it.
• Pharma Tech - If you plan to be a credit factory, max this, so you can create Blood Plasma from Monster Parts and sell it as a high-value shopfood. Recommended for beginners.

Weapon choices

Early levels (Title level 1-4, lvl 1-100)
There are a handful of useful weapons available at early levels, but take my recommendation, and just don't use weapons in early levels. It is simply not worth it. Focus on raising TS and MC as high as possible to cast the highest possible robot. A sufficiently high level robot will make mincemeat out of any monster or dungeon. A well twinked froob engi with a warbot can solo the entirety of TOTW without any effort. The other reason of not using weapons, is that in these levels you are the most vulnerable (squishy) and you really want to avoid aggro by pew-pew-ing the monster. However if you want to feel amazing, the recommended weapon to twink is The Dog of War pistol.

Mid levels (Title level 4-5, lvl 100-189)
At the start of TL4 (lvl 100) the uncontestable power of your almighty robot will start to wane, but you can still afford not to use any weapon until level 150 (TL 5). However if you do not want to slack, you can equip a few weapons. I think the best weapon for these levels are pistols.

Froob endgame (Title level 6 190-200 for froobs, 190-205 for expansion players)
This is the level range where the power of engineers really drop. The best pet you can cast is still the lvl 200 slayerdroid (or the Slayerdroid Annihilator post-200), which despite the better buffs is not that formidable anymore and you need to push yourself hard to remain at the top. For this too, I think, pistols are the way to go. Froob endgame will be discussed later.

Getting close to endgame (lvl 206-219)
This is the home stretch, but you are not quite there yet. Your pets finally hit hard again, but you need to have a cheap yet effective choice of weapon to maximize your performance (primarily in inferno missions). Again, I recommend pistols, but you can start experimenting with others, such as grenade. Most endgame grenade guns and pistols are easy to obtain and equip in this level range.

Endgame weapons (200, 220)
Currently for froobs the weapon family that makes the most sense is the pistol line. For expansion players, you have a broader choice, currently pistol, shotgun and grenade are the most effective weapon lines.

Pistols
Pistols are one of the two primary focus weapons for engineers (other being Grenade). Engineers can reach their highest attack rating with pistols. The advantage of pistols is that you can find a decent one for every level and allow for flexible setups. Some pistols have very nice modifiers. It's drawback is, that pistols have relatively small damage (the non-endgame ones anyway). Here are the most noteworthy pistols:

• Customized Desert Reet 1000 - Drops from the Director of Foremans (Biomare). It is a very nice pistol considering its low requirements. It has a fast Burst, decent damage and nano damage proc (effect on hit). It has no MBS (meaning that damage will infinitely scale with your attack rating, no capped maximum damage). Its drawback is, that by the time you can loot one (without a twink friend escorting you through Biomare), it is not that impressive anymore. Froob friendly.
• The Dog of War - Drops from Wardog from The Reck playfield on RK. It has VERY nice stats, has both Burst and Fling Shot and low requirements. It is a great weapon of choice from lvl 100 to 200. It is THE best froob pistol currently.
• Parasitic Hecataleech - Drops from Inner Sanctum. Has seemingly nice stats, but its slow speed and horrendous Bust recharge makes it a poor choice. Froob friendly.
• Pain of Patricia - Used to be one of the top froob pistols, it has very high damage, but slow speed. Drops from Patricia Johnsson (Mercenaries raid)
• Solar-Powered Master Engineer Pistol - A VERY good pistol. Multiple upgrade stages (tradeskill guide here). Levelling item (right-click to increase its QL). Lengthy and very difficult tradeskill process. Requires high tradeskills (in froob terms) and requires some very rare special items. The Master Engineer Pistol has a higher regular damage than The Dog of War, and some really sweet modifiers but no specials. As a froob, pair it with The Dog of War. It has no MBS, so its damage scales with your attack rating uninhibited.
• Augmented Master Engineer Pistol - Upgrade from the top froob friendly engineer pistol (1st upgrade, 2nd upgrade). This is THE best engineer pistol in the game. Its attack rating is boosed by 30% of your Mechanical Engineering skill. With this weapon your attack rating can go as high as 3600ish. Has high regular damage, excellent critical modifier and fast Burst attack.
• Infused Dust Brigade Engineer Pistol - Drops from Ground Chief Aune (DB2), it is the "poor man's AMEP", very similar to AMEP, with less nice modifiers, similar (but less) attack rating bonus from Mechanical Engineering and more or less the same damage. Does not require the painful upgrade process AMEP has, but there is still a simple upgrade to be done from the base weapon (guide). Dual wielded with AMEP yields one of the best PVM damage setup engineers can have.
• Kyr'Ozch Pistol - Drops from aliens. Terrible weapons at low levels, low damage and high requirements, use The Dog of War until level 200. Post level 200 they become more useful due to their high minimum damage (still not impressive, but hit more than any RK weapon in Inferno). Upgradable to Type 1 (Fling shot) and Type 4 (Burst) Might worth to completely avoid and stick to DoW or the Sec7 pistol until you can equip the IDBEP/AMEP.
• Special Edition Kyr'Ozch Pistol - Drops in Sector 7. A fairly good pistol, but has very slow special attacks (Burst + Fling). Somewhat better in SL than DoW, but the difference is so small, that you can skip this weapon.
• OFAB Peregrine - Very similar to Kyr'Ozch pistols, but with more damage and even higher requirements. Despite seemingly decent, having both Burst and Fling Shot, buying one requires Victory Points, upgrades to MK6 are expensive and in the endgame you have much better choices. So I'd avoid this line of weapons altogether.
• Lust of the Xan - A relatively low requirement endgame weapon. The base weapon (which is rather weak) drops from The Beast, the upgrade drops from the Legacy of the Xan raids. It is a decent offhand weapon. Can be upgraded to the Troa'ler and Peh'wer pistols. Upgrade guide here.
• Troa'ler Pistol - A result of years of whining by the community. A pistol with Aimed Shot. Completely useless in PVM, but one of the choice weapons in PVP.
• Peh'wer Pistol - Along with the Ofab Peregrine, the only decent pistol with both Fling Shot and Burst that can be used by Engineers. A good offhand weapon.
• BigBurger Chapman Max and MTI SOCOM Mk VI Proto - They are the only pistols with Full Auto. Bigburger has a fast FA recharge, but small clip, SOCOM has a large clip, but slow FA recharge. Arguably, BigBurger is the better choice. Only used for crazy, high damage setups, but I cannot recommend them anymore. While can be equipped by froobs, it is a really bad idea to use these as a froob (or anything lower than TL7).

Weapons continued

Grenade launchers (or simply "Grenade")
The other weapon line that receives extensive skill support from buffs and items. This line is characterized by slow, high damage weapons (high regulars, very high criticals) that however, lack specials (except Fling Shot). Grenade is a very inexpensive, yet effective endgame choice for PVM. Close to useless for PVP however. It is the most IP-efficient weapon line for engies, so recommended for more tradeskill oriented players. Grenade weapons check Duck-Exp as defense skill, which many people do not IP. They typically have Chemical damage (notable exception: Dreadloch Obliterator). The main disadvantage of grenade is the lack of weapon choices during the levelling progression. The weapon line is NOT recommended for froobs due to poor weapon selection all over.

• Red Line Grenade Launcher - A very sweet early game weapon, but first, you don't need a weapon in that early game, second, it is completely useless above lvl 50ish. Also rare and expensive (dyna drop only). One-handed. Only useful for very low level engineer twinks. Froob friendly.
• OT Hurler - Like a big brother of the Red Line. Good for the requirements, but being dyna-only loot, it is very rare and most likely you will not find one. Also, it is useless in SL. Froob friendly.
• Kyr'Ozch Grenade Launcher - A weapon with decent stats. If you choose grenade all the way, make sure you are stocked up with different QLs of the alien grenade gun, as there are not many other decent choices until TL7. Fortunately they are cheap as dirt. Can be upgraded to Type 1 to have Fling Shot, but not really worth the hassle.
• Special Edition Kyr'Ozch Grenade Gun - Very similar to the normal alien grenade gun, except this is MUCH better. Drops from Sector 7. A good choice to have from 151 to TL7.
• The Prohibited Hand-Mortar of Bacam Xum - A decent grenade launcher that can be equipped in early TL7. Needs to be assembled from three parts (guide). All parts drop from high level Inferno mobs (Xark, Razor and Lord of the Void). Due to its difficulty of obtaining it, it is advisable to skip it altogether. Has a funny "booom---booom" sound though.
• Dreadloch Obliterator - Drops from the Dreadloch bosses scattered around RK. Difficult to get one on your own, but since people occasionally farm these bosses, you can buy one very cheap. Has nice regular damage and monstrous crits. Also good hit visuals.
• Corrupted Lord of Sloth - Drops from the Pyramid of Home raid. Normally it would be fairly difficult to obtain before endgame, but since it is normally left to rot, ask your friends who do PoH to let you loot once one drops. Have relatively low requirements to equip and performs on par with the next grenade gun (on RK, on SL it is much less impressive).
• Sloth of the Xan - The best grenade weapon in the game, the base weapon drops from The Beast, the upgrade drops from the Legacy of the Xan raids. Despite dropping from the Beast, it is easy to acquire, since most people leave it to rot, so chances are you can acquire it for free easily. Crits go beyond the 6k mark, has a funky "fwooomp-fwoomp" sound effect, has nice stat modifiers and altogether is a very good PVM weapon.

Shotguns
While does not enjoy the perk and item support of pistols and grenades, it is still supported, and is a valid weapon choice for expansion players. Froob shotguns are usually pretty bad, the only exception is the Maw and an Atrox-only shotgun. Characteristically it is very similar to grenade weapons with a bit of differences: somewhat lower regulars, but somewhat higher crits. The choice of weapons is even poorer than grenade. However, shotgun is a valid (and great) line for PVP. Shotguns check Duck-Exp as defense skill, which many people do not IP. Unfortunately, shotguns are not supported in Control symbiants (except the Xan waist symbiants).

• Maw of the Abyss - A decent shotgun, that goes against the philosophy of shotguns: it has good regular damage, but very bad criticals. Drops from Inner Sanctum bosses. It is quite slow however, but you can equip it around level 150. Not at all impressive at level 200. Terrible in SL. Froob friendly.
• Diamondine Kick Pistol - NOTE: TECHNICALLY THIS IS A PISTOL WEAPON. I still put it here, because once upgraded, it becomes a shotgun weapon. Drops from Diamondine Soldier (high level RK boss). Atrox-only. While the regulars have quite a spread in damage, it has a nice maximum damage and very good crits. Also has Burst which is rare for shotguns. But hey, it's not a shotgun. Very good on RK and aliens, terrible in SL. Also one handed. Froob friendly.
• Low-recoil Diamondine Kick Pistol - THIS IS TECHNICALLY A SHOTGUN. The DKP upgraded with an item from Sector 28 (or Sector 42). Removes the Atrox-only tag. And makes it better all-over (not to mention changing the weapon type from pistol to shotgun)
• Perfected Diamondine Kick Pistol - Upgraded from LRDKP (use a Screwdriver on it, requires: EE 2100 ME 2175 WS 2250). Better stats than LRDKP, but very high requirements. It is an excellent one-handed shotgun. Dual wielding two of these is the best PVM damage for shotguns. Fits extremely well with the AMEP for a mixed high-damage pistol-shotgun PVM setup. Good choice for PVP too when paired with Troa'Ler pistol.
• Kyr'Ozch Shotgun - Drops from aliens. You better stick to these all the way to 220. While theoretically you can acquire a better shotgun along the way (Maw at some point, or OFAB Silverback) those are not worth the hassle, and you will outlevel them pretty soon. Alien shotguns are very cheap and easy to upgrade by getting a higher QL. Can be upgraded to Type 1 to have Fling Shot, but not worth the trouble.
• OFAB Silverback - Bought in Lost Eden shops for VP. Not worth using it until you can equip the QL300 MK6 version. The MK6 Silverback is an excellent PVP weapon (has Aimed Shot and Fling Shot) and not bad for PVM either due to its high criticals.
• Special Edition Kyr'Ozch Shotgun - Drops from Sector 7 bosses. A very sweet shotgun. Use it from LVL 151 to TL7.
• Greed of the Xan - One of the best PVM shotguns in the game, but very challenging to equip and keep out of OE on engineer. The base weapon drops from The Beast, the upgrade drops from the Legacy of the Xan raids. Has large criticals, but falls behind the top grenade launchers.
• Corrupted Lord of Greed - Drops from the Pyramid of Home, this is the second best PVM shotgun with much lower requirements than the Greed of the Xan. I'd advise to use this weapon instead to be able to self-swap with the Silverback if you want to use shotguns for PVP, but want a better gun for PVM.
• Enchanted Waterfall Eye-Wind Onehander - The infamous "craphander". It is a one-handed PVP-only weapon (useless in PVM) which has Fling Shot, Burst and more importantly, a fast recharge Aimed Shot. It's damage in PVP completely depends on your added dmg (projectile damage modifiers), random Aimed Shot multiplication and criticals. In other words, this gun produces wildly random results. Can AS an enforcer for 10000 damage or 500 damage. Hence the name "craphander". Besides, the animation looks like as if it actually flings sh*t around. It also has dismal weapon range, making it a pain to use against people who run away from you. Froob friendly.
• Krutt Assault 219 Waltzing Queen Special - A funny shotgun. It has the highest crit damage of any ranged weapon in the game. Practically zero regular damage though. Also quite slow. Might worth a try both on endgame 220 engies as well as crit setup froobs. Just to see the faces of others when you land a crit. Froob friendly.
• Ithaca Ki-8 Snakemaster - A typical shotgun concept: zero regulars, huge crits. Except, this one also has a relatively fast Aimed Shot making it a PVP gun. In 2017 however, its usefulness pretty much ends at level 150. However it might find niche use for froob crit setups. Better than Waltzing Queen, because it is faster. Froob friendly.

Ranged Energy
These relatively inexpensive weapons used to be a good choice for PVP, because they check Duck-Exp (which many people do not IP) and the Kyr'Ozch Energy Carbine is a very capable Aimed Shot weapon. Have been outscaled by other weapons. The selection is even poorer than the shotgun line. An even bigger disadvantage though is that the "Shiny" cluster part for Ranged Energy is head, which makes implanting it unfeasible. The other slots are relatively convenient (Eye and Left-Hand). Control symbiants do not support RE.

• Kyr'Ozch Energy Pistol - Drops from aliens. Can be upgraded to Type 5 (Burst + Fling shot). Otherwise not very impressive.
• Special Edition Kyr'Ozch Energy Pistol - Drops from Sector 7, if you are hell-bent on going RE, stick to these until 220.
• Kyr'Ozch Energy Carbine - Drops from aliens. Can be upgraded to both Type 5 (Burst + Fling) or Type 3 (Fling + Aimed shot). The Type 3 (KEC3 in short) is still a potent PVP weapon due to having the fastest AS recharge of any high-end, engi-friendly weapon, but still not as good as other choices.
• Dreadloch Rapier - Drops from Dreadloch bosses. Inexpensive, because most people do not need it. For a reason. Has decent damage, extremely fast specials, but difficult to equip and keep out of OE.
• Dreadloch Thrasher - Same as above, only it's two handed and has more damage. Not worth it.
• Skawt's Plasma Emitter - Drops from Warchief Skawt in the Reck playfield on RK. An excellent froob-friendly RE weapon with Burst and Full Auto. Most likely not possible to equip on froob engies though. Might be a good levelling choice for expansion engies. The weapon has very good damage and relatively low requirements for expansion players. Full auto is close to impossible to cap on 11s.
• Skawt's Compact Plasma Emitter - One handed version, much less impressive. On par with The Dog of War stats-wise but due to the difficulty of implanting RE, it is a subpar choice.

Heavy Weapons
Now... THEORETICALLY this is a supported weapon line for engineers. You have a buff for it. Well yeah. But no perks. No decent armor choices. No symbiant support.

• Massive Bolt Charger - Rare drop from Inferno dynas. A very fast weapon, extremely easy to cap specials. Equippable on 120-150ish level twinks at which range it wrecks in PVM, arguably in PVP too, because it checks Duck-Exp, which people do not IP at 150.
• Achaean Conqueror - Drops from the Pyramid of Home. I haven't made calculations yet, but I think it is possible to equip this on 220 engies. Might be a weapon that can overdamage PVM shotguns and grenade guns due to having full auto (which you will not be able to cap at 11s). The Dshark is probably still better if you want an all-out damage setup.

Weapons Continued
Assault Rifles
Well... there is only one assault rifle worth mentioning, which is a good weapon, but otherwise the whole weapon line is a very poor choice due to the lack of Full Auto support in the engineer equip set.

• Dreadloch Modified Shark - The infamous "noobstick". The dshark drops from Dreadloch bosses scattered around on RK. It is not the only high-level assault rifle engineers can equip, but it is the ONLY high level assault rifle where you can cap the full auto recharge at 11s. Why? Because the dshark's full auto cycle is 0. Which means, you get capped full auto cycle even with 0 FA skill. Hence, the name "noobstick". A bit tricky to equip on engies (but not a huge feat anymore), but it is arguably the highest DPS weapon you can possibly equip.

Rifles
The only rifles worth mentioning are exclusively niche PVP weapons for the TL5ish PVP range. They are useless in PVM. All other rifles are subpar choices for any other application.

• Unionist Arbalest - Very rare, dynaloot only weapon with a very fast AS cycle, and a relatively good damage. Also requires bow to be IPed and has split attack rating. Still considered a rifle though. Clan side only. Froob friendly.
• Zastaba Velocity SX - Special Forces - Rollable rifle. Fast, but unimpressive Aimed Shot, otherwise useless. Froob friendly.

Bows
A very poor choice nowdays, some of them were used back in 2006 up until 2008 due to their Aimed Shot capabilities.

• OFAB Tiger The MK6 has good aimed shot, but the other weapon options are so much better, than this line should be ignored.
• Superior Sapphistic Bow - Niche TL5 PVP weapon. Has fast Aimed Shot, but I'd just avoid bows on engies at all levels.

Martial Arts
Why is MA engi friendly? Engineers have a nano called Slayerdroid Transference, which morphs the engi into a slayerdroid, giving a whopping 400 MA skill bonus. Because of that, MA is a viable engineer build both for froobs and expansion players. The cost of being an MA engi is that it is useless in PVP, and risky to use in PVM due to lack of range while not better than other weapon choices. Very implant friendly though, it is a viable choice for froobs. If you can stand being a slayerdroid all the time that is.

• Fists - Type of exact "weapon" is determined by your martial arts skill. Higher "QL" fists hit harder, but are slower, requiring you to IP Physical Inits. Fists have no MBS, their damage scale infinitely with your MA skill. Fists have high max damage and high crits, and relatively low minimum damage. In the endgame, you can have around 2600ish MA attack rating, which hit 6k crits on RK and 4k crits in SL. With all the recent additions, in an absolute endgame setup, going bare fisted is probably better than any of the below weapons. As a froob, stay with bare fists.
• Dreadloch Shen Sticks - Drops from Dreadloch bosses. Has higher minimum damage than fists, but lower maximum damage and crits. Recommended for SL (though I am not sure about that anymore).
• Kuma Tonfa - Base weapon drops from the Beast (Lord/Lady of Wisdom), upgrade drops from Legacy of the Xan instances. Same stats as the Shen sticks, but also has Fast Attack. Most likely as an engi you have better things to spend IP on than fast attack though.
• X1-R4 Viral Force-Blades - Apart from looking cool, it is quite useless for engies. Has lower stats than the above two, but has Sneak Attack. But again, MA engi is useless in PVP.

PVM

In this section I will be only focusing on solo PVM. Team-based PVM is kind of a nobrainer: send pets and pew pew. As long as you know the specifics of a raid, you will be fine. Solo PVM is a lot trickier though and requires some skill and good knowledge of your capabilities. I am also not going to cover low-level PVM, which is also very simple: send the robot. AFK until robot kills mob. Repeat. I will also ignore "tactics" for nobrainer mobs, which again, only require two buttons and a little afk-time to defeat. This guide will give advice for those mobs, that when you attack full-frontal will wipe your face and will need finesse to defeat. I will focus on expansion gameplay, but froob gameplay in this regards is surprisingly similar.

1. Pet preparation
Your main tank - not surprisingly - is the big robot. You need to maximize the tankiness of this pet. Cast all PVM buffs on it (see nanos section) and use these trimmers (see trimmers section): Trimmer - Positive Aggressive-Defensive, Trimmer - Divert Energy to Hitpoints and Trimmer - Increase Aggressiveness. Use these for the dog as well, except the increase aggressiveness one, otherwise the dog will take too much aggro. Remember, that you need to reuse the trimmers after every zoning. Keep backup pets in your inventory, especially a dog. If the Widowmaker dies, it is generally over, but at least you can have a backup dog to do damage.

2. Keeping the tank alive
We have established that your tank is the high HP pet. Similar to team situations, if the tank dies, your team dies with it. It is the same for the engi's own little team of bots. Even if you have backup pets in your inventory, if the main pet dies you will have unshakable aggro, because the new pet begins with a clean slate on the mob's hate list.
Your most important tool for keeping the tank pet alive is the pet heal nanoline. After rebalancing, both froobs and expansion players have access to two different heals: the rollable pet heal and the Bronto burger quest one. The quest nano (Master's Repairs) heals a percentage of the HP of BOTH pets, making it particularly useful for the high hp tank pet. You do not need to target anything, it works as a team heal. The other heal (A Maker's Touch) can be spammed very quickly, and is very effective, just make sure you do not run out of nano too soon. The % heal uses a different lockout than the rest of your nanos, including the single heal. In tough situations, the formula is: let the tank pet HP drop a bit, use the % heal, then spam spam spam the single heal until the % heal recharge wears off, then repeat.
In very tight spots, don't be shy to use your heal perks on the pet, even the precious Bio Regrowth perk. It is worth more using it on the pet than yourself as you will still have your healdelta, stims and combat rechargers. Also the Mechanic perkline's pet heal helps a ton here.

3. Abusing heal delta
If you put your pets on follow, they will be considered "out of combat" even though the mob keeps attacking them. Out of combat mobs (including your pets) have their heal delta kicked into overdrive (generally they heal about 5-10% of their HP every 2 seconds). This greatly prolongs the longevity of your pets, and relieves you a bit from the heal strain. Make sure the bot has built enough aggro, so it still keeps taking damage from the mob, even though it is already healing out of combat.

4. Aggro cycling
This is the most difficult, but important skill to successfully solo mobs and bosses that would otherwise wipe the floor with your face. Normally the KFC bot should do all the tanking, but some mobs just hit too hard, and will eventually overdamage your heals. If the KFC bot dies, it's game over. The dog will follow two seconds later, then you will be next. What you need to do is distribute the damage between the chickenbot, the dog and yourself.
You need to be aware of aggro mechanics to do the above: the basic generation of aggro is damage. 5000 damage equals 5000 "taunt". If you have an unbuffed pet, which does 5000 damage, and you do 5001, you will take aggro. The buffs and trimmers however make pets generate more aggro on the mob than the damage they do. So theoretically a fully buffed and trimmed pet will keep aggro even if you keep attacking the mob. This is especially true for froobs. Keep in mind though, that pets will always generate some aggro for their owners. All other things being equal, if your pet does 5000 damage and you do 4999, you will still get aggro because of the passive "hate" generation your pet does in the mob's hatelist. This hate generation is offset by the above mentioned buffs and trimmers somewhat, but if you keep up with your pets in terms of damage, you will still get aggro.
And you should. You need to be close to your pets on the mob's hate list, so when the KFC bot and dog starts going down, you can take the hit. Your defenses grant enough time for your pets to heal up a little and continue tanking. The general formula is to prepare the pets, send them, let them attack for a while, then you should start attacking. Be conservative with perks and special attacks, use primarily regular attacks and only use perks and specials if you need to quickly take aggro. When the chickenbot is below 50-40% hp, put it on follow. Very soon, the dog will take aggro. The dog is squishy as hell, but still can take a few hits. When it is close to dying, put it on follow and take aggro immediately. Be careful, not to pull out the dog too late, if you can't grab aggro instantly, the dog will die. When you take aggro from the dog, wait for a few hits from the mob, then send the Widowmaker to start building aggro back up while you are getting bashed so it will take aggro before you die.
Dancing gracefully in the middle of this 3-way aggro junction is the key to successful soloing.
NOTE: Some mobs are designed by FC to have erratic aggro. You have to have experience which mobs have unpredictable aggro. Treat those monsters much more carefully, and I recommend attacking very sparingly and let pets to the job.

5. Pulling
You have to know how the initial aggro mechanic works. If you aggro too many mobs you will die. Engineers lack the crowd control tools that support professions have so you have to have finesse when pulling. Mobs have an aggro range. If you step in that range, you will get aggro. However that is only true when the mob sees you. If you are behind the mob, this range is smaller. If you are out of line-of-sight (eg. the mob is behind a door) completely, then the mob will not aggro. Most mobs in the game are social. If you shoot one, the others of the same species will aggro you as well. If you are pulling from a crowd, NEVER ATTACK. Set pets on /follow. If you damage the monster in any way (except reflect shields), the others will aggro you. Typically you would have to mow down the whole group before you get to the mob you want. There is a trick though. This item (shop buyable) will aggro the specific mob you select. Even from a crowd. As long as you don't damage the mob and not get too close, you can pull out anything from any crowd.

6. Crowd control
But...but... engies have no crowd control! Well... yeah they do. Very limited though. If you happen to pull a group or the boss you are attacking spawns "pets", or stragglers come and join the fun, you have to be prepared. There are two ways to do this. If the mob you are attacking can move from its spot (ie follow you), then spam Intrusive Auras on your pets to snare the adds. Pull the mob out of the line of sight of the adds, so they will lose aggro. If the boss you are whacking cannot move, theoretically you can still abuse snare, but its not a very good idea. If you get out of range, the adds will start hitting your pets. YOU DO NOT WANT THAT. They will eat up pets fast. The other method you can do is blind-tanking. Engineer is not an evade profession. But Disruptive Void Projector reduces mob attack rating by a whopping 1210. If you have maxed evades, have items that add both HP and defenses, you can evade-tank adds using the blind aura. The blind however breaks on everything, even when a leet farts two zones away. So you need to spam the blind aura. Upon casting, it typically has a few seconds, during which it does not break. Abuse that and spam the aura.
Note: the guaranteed hit % rule will apply. Many mobs WILL kill you, no matter how much evades you have.

PVP

I haven't got experience on PVPing on lower level engineer twinks, so I will only focus on lvl 220 PVP.

Engineer vs Adventurer
The whale versus the elephant. Adventurers are extremely hard to kill, because they have huge evades, Bio Shielding, regular heals, complete heals. If the adventurer has the Awakened Beast armor equipped, has enough game knowledge to know to kite your pets, you will never kill him/her. Even without the Beast armor, it will be a looooong chase. Fortunately however, advies lack the damage potential to hurt engineers especially if they kite pets. Their main source of damage are special attacks, and your blockers will nullify these. It's best to either bring your friends, or just ignore confrontation with this profession.
Duels: Use a very reliable AS weapon. If you swap the beast armor mid-duel, the duel will last an eternity, but at the end you shall be victorious.

Engineer vs Agent
One of your toughest opponents. If the agent knows how to play the profession, you cannot win the fight. They most likely will use Tranquilizer on the KFC bot (an unremovable snare) taking out 1/3 of your damage. The rest is not enough to defeat them solo. By the time Tranquilizer wears off, they perked you to death. When you encounter an agent, send pets, use a realiable aimed shot weapon. Once the agent starts perking you pop Bio Cocoon, otherwise you will not survive. If you have less than 20k HP you will not survive the alpha even then. If you are lucky and the agent makes a mistake (starts tanking pets for instance) you have a chance to win. Otherwise try to survive and hope for someone else to help you.
Duels: beast armor is a must-have, otherwise you die very quickly. The agent will likely stack crit resist to minimize damage from your pets and your Aimed Shots. If you are VERY lucky, you can win this if you can force the agent to quickly use up the complete heals.

Engineer vs Bureaucrat
Crats can be a real pain in the behind, but otherwise not very dangerous. Their damage in open pvp situations are not very impressive and they lack the damage mitigation you have. Carlo and the ninjabot does not hit very hard, though they shouldn't be underestimated. If the crat is really knowledgable, this will be a tough fight, but eventually you will AS them to death. If the crat gets pissed, they will start to charm your pets. Charms are unavoidable and are very annoying. Remember, that pet effectiveness come from buffs and either if the crat gets killed or you pop new pets, or you use the Pet Steal Back nano, you will get them back without buffs. In this scenario, the crat actually has a harder time to defeat you, but they do it anyway, just to annoy you. Crats also have excellent crowd control nanos, but almost all of them can be removed from your pets with a single button. The exception is the Last Minute Negotiations, which is an unremovable calm, but it does not last long, and will give a few minutes of LMN resistance to your pets after wearing off. A crat that cannot defeat you or annoy you enough, will just root you and flee. This is one of the most annoying professions you will face in PVP.
Duels: If the crat has no pets, you shouldn't either. He will steal yours. Sneaky crats however will steal your pets mid-fight, so always keep backup pets in your inventory (or have the Pet Steal Back nano). Don't forget the cold damage trimmers and damage modifier items. The crat will sacrifice the robotic pet to gain absorbs. If you and your pets have the same damage type, you can easily brute force your way through this absorb.

Engineer vs Doctor
"DIE ALREADY!" will be the most common exclamation you will make during fights. Not surprisingly, doctors have excellent damage mitigation in the form of healing, but like adventurers, they lack the damage to hurt your significantly. Docs without much PVP knowledge are very easy to defeat though. The recipe is: let pets do their work, use your lower damaging perks. Once the doc drops to or below 30% HP (most likely due to a crit from the KFC bot) unleash your alpha and hope for the best. Repeat until the doc is dead. Docs have the ability to severly hurt your pets with Uncontrollable Body Tremors, an init debuff, which effectively disables your pet. Fortunately, you have a nano to remove this (Cleanse Pet), but use it sparingly, because it has a long cooldown time. Best is to keep damage pressure on the doc, so they will be so busy with healing that they cannot afford to cast debuffs.
Duels: Same tactic. But will be much more difficult as the doc will only have to focus on you. Not sure if you can win this fight against a good doc.

Engineer vs Engineer
This matchup highly depends on three factors: your and the opponent's setup, timing and luck. You have a higher chance to defeat other engineers if you have larger HP, more crit resistance and higher critting weapons. Pets are the most dangerous things here, kite them if necessary. Running around in circles will not help much though, you need to run in one direction at max speed. Be quick to remove the snare aura if it lands. If the other engi is dumb, your pets will do the work while you are running. Still, this matchup is most likely won by the luckiest engineer. If you and your pets crit a lot and/or your Null Space Disruptor lands first, the other engi will be defeated. You also have to be very careful with the timing of your defenses. Do not pop all of them at once. Try to figure out when does the other engi pop coon. When coon is up, save your perks. Once it wears off, perk hard. As a general rule, the engi who forces the other engi to pop coon sooner, will most likely win the fight.
Duels: Go PVM. Seriously. Equip a high-regular PVM weapon. Stack HP and crit resist. Beast armor is a must if the other engi has it too. Tactics are otherwise the same as above.

Engineer vs Enforcer
This is a dance with death matchup. The best way to defeat enforcers is to prolong the usage of your defensive perks as much as possible. Most enforcers use either 1HB-1HE or 2HE weapons, which have a nasty alpha damage. If you let the alpha scare you, you will be defeated. You have to control your instincts and do not pop Bio Cocoon during the enfo alpha or otherwise for a good deal of time during the fight, even if you are on low hp for most of the time. They will not be able to alpha you if you have more than 20k hp. 2HB enfs are a bigger pain though, they have large regular damage and crits from that big hammer. Also lots of stuns, but a less scary alpha. Beware of stuns though. Try to push damage and end the fight as soon as possible. In open PVP usually there is not enough time to finish the 1v1 before someone else shows, so at the end it could go both ways. Overall, this matchup still favors the engineer.
Duels: Same tactic as above. Conserve defensive perks. Use your heal delta. If the enf has beast armor, so should you.

Engineer vs Fixer
Despite common knowledge, fixers CAN defeat engineers, it just takes an awful lot of time. In open PVP however, there isn't enough time for a long 1v1, so most fixers just run. If they do run, you cannot really kill them. Those that don't you will defeat easily. If the fixer is not knowlegable enough to know that tanking pets is a bad idea, then you will have an easy win. Keep spamming aimed shots. Learn how to stop for a fraction of a second to do AS, and then continue chasing the fixer.
Duels: The fixer will not be able to kite your pets effectively here. Congratulations, you win.

Engineer vs Keeper
If the keeper is really good, then he/she has a chance of defeating you, but generally this matchup favors the engineer. If you have a weapon with big, reliable aimed shots that is. Keepers can have a surprisingly good alpha against engis, so try not to let them get your HP too low. If you are not careful, there will be a Clarion Call and you will be dead. Good keepers are also notoriously tanky, but not as much as advies. In group pvp situations, keepers are very dangerous and will seriously mess you up, while you will simply not be able to eliminate them quickly. It's best to keep your distance if there are more people around.
Duels: Use a high AS weapon. You might need to use beast armor, since keepers can last long enough to perk/regular you to death.

Engineer vs Martial Artist
These guys can work in two "modes" now. Normally MAs eat you up fairly quickly due to their huge crits, but you eat them up faster with your aimed shots and pets. Not very good MAs are also perkable (with pistols) and fairly squishy. "Zazen stance" MAs however are a lot more difficult to eliminate, except when they stand around getting gangbanged by your pets. If you can stay in range, you will have an easier time, but will still take while. Underestimating MA crit damage and their healing ability is usually fatal, so be careful not to make that mistake.
Duels: Stack crit resist. Stack it like no tomorrow. Since in PVP crit chance is halved, your crit resist items are "double" effective. This should eliminate the scariest damage from MAs. Pets and AS will eventually win.

Engineer vs Metaphysicist
Almost scoring on par with crats on the annoying scale, this matchup is not as dangerous as it is annoying. Bow MPs will be fairly easy to dispatch, shield MPs will be tough. Since shield MPs are so reliant on the monkey to do damage, if you are feeling an A-hole, you can kill the lvl 225 pet (even easier with pistol setup). This will upset the MP more than their toolset upsets you. If you are a real gentleman, then just kill the healpet (twice), kite the monkey and AS the MP to death.
Duels: I'd say, just kill all the pets if the MP has the 225 pet up. Kill the healpet first, start on the monkey. Kill the healpet again. Kill the monkey. Steamroll the MP. Make sure Dominate + Mind Quake will not make your pets go OE.

Engineer vs Nano-tecnician
Probably the hardest matchup, even moreso than the agent. If the NT has Awakened Beast armor on and knows how to play the profession, you will never win an 1v1. In a more chaotic PVP situation they are not that much of a problem, since their defensive stuff will not always be up. But if an NT has time to prepare for you, you are toast. If they are dead-set on destroying you, they will go offensive focus, use the reflect-piercing Izgimmer's Tactical Nuke, which is the immediately followed up by another nuke, so they bypass reflects. You will be typically dead in like 5 seconds no matter what you do. If they go defensive focus, they do not go splat instantly in group PVP, but you have a chance to defeat them.
Duels: You. Will. Lose.

Engineer vs Shade
If you are not caught with your pants down, it is a fairly easy matchup. If the shade surprises you, chances are you will be defeated. First off, you must have more than 20k HP, or you will be alphaed. You can pop coon when the shade is in the middle of perking you (once the stun wears off). If the shade is not ridiculously drained, your aimed shots and pets will win the day. If you see the shade coming it is even easier. Just queue perks before you get drained, and the shade will go splat fairly easily. Make sure you kite them running backwards. That way they will not be able to use their "must be behind" perks. If you want to be a really, really bad boy, use a root graft before the shade goes into melee range. You can win the fight without actually taking damage.
Duels: Same as above. Just do not use grafts, it is unethical in duels. If you can swap in beast armor and have a reliable AS weapon, you can't really lose this fight.

Engineer vs Soldier
I'll just say it. This is an unfair matchup. A soldier will probably never be able to win an 1v1 against you. It's like engi vs agent, or engi vs nt, but backwards. Your reflect-ripping aura shuts down the soldier's main line of defense and they lack the evades to avoid any of the damage of your pets. Also, your blockers will shut down the main damage source of soldiers. Theoretically they can win by kiting hard and perfectly timing specials so they can get a fullauto in, but root grafts will nullify these hopes. Tactic is: run to soldier's face, spam Null Space Disruptor, once it lands unleash your fury. In spite, soldiers used to kill the dog pet to annoy the engi, but with improved pet heals even that revenge is denied from them.
Duels: /terminate pets. Give the poor sold a chance.

Engineer vs Trader
A matchup that requires a lot of nerves. Traders are incredibly annoying. Their drains make your pets unresponsive, Grand Theft Humidity will deplete your nano, they have good healing powers now (CH from beast armor, 10% HP per tick nano, general heal drains) and your weapon goes OE. However traders lack the damage to kill engies quickly. You can simply run away. However annyoing this matchup seems, you can actually defeat a trader. Send pets the moment you spot the trader. Pets will keep on attacking even when you are drained unless you give them a new command. However the trader will calm them to break the attack. At which time you probably already have depleted nano, but you can still cast Pet Attention if you time a stim correctly. Normally you would start panicking that you are helpless against their toolset, but don't do that. Sooner or later they will have to spam so much stuff on you, that something won't land, or they forget to recast, or they are busy healing up your aimed shots, so you will have a window to resend pets, and have a chance to defeat the trader. Easy Shot helps a lot, as it tends to land even while drained. Still, this matchup's outcome is wildly unpredictable, but still favors the trader a tad bit.
Duels: Swap in full nanoskill gear (maybe keep the AS scope if you can). If your pets do not go OE, you win the fight. You have to remove calms, but the trader will drain your nano. Use stim-timing to cast Pet Attention.

Tradeskilling

I believe that it is not a good idea to make a pure tradeskiller engineer. Unless you can afford both resources and time-wise to create a "tool" for TSing. Making a tool like that is a complete no-brainer: max all tradeskills, perk all tradeskills and you should be able to TS pretty much everything ingame with minimal investment in armors. The below is for those who want to PVM (or even PVP) and still be able to do some crafting.

As a froob
As a froob it is only viable if you specialize. See the skills section to decide which particular tradeskills you want to specialize on. My recommendation is focusing on implant creation as there will be a constant demand for them from your other characters, your very own engineer as well as the occasional other player. This means you should focus on maximizing Nano Programming. Once you have plenty of IP, you can put IP into Field Quantum Physics, Psychology and Chemistry (in that particular priority order). If you have extra IP it is worth increasing Pharmaceuticals as well, because being able to process blood plasma results in a fairly good shopfood income. However in today's mature (or as others would put it: inflated) economy, it is only worth it if you have no other means to get credits to spend on shop-buyable items.
A level 200 froob engineer with the right gear and QL 200 implants can get around 1200-ish tradeskills (more for Nano Programming) with outside buffs, maybe more.

As an expansion player
If engineer is your first character, I'd recommend to follow the path I have outlined for froobs to be self-sufficient in your earlier levels. However, beyond the ability to assemble QL 200 implants, I do not recommend investing any more into tradeskills until you hit TL7. Then at 220 you have a decision: 1, make your engineer a tool, at which point it does not really require any investment, with decent symbiants, perks, and a few cheap items you will be able to assemble anything. 2, you make a combat-capable engineer, who at the same time (albeit with some effort) is able to craft anything. I'll focus on option 2 here. Note however that option two will require considerable investment.

With the advent of the Apotheosis research line (which, at level 10 enables you to swap alien armor without the Alien Technology Expertise perks) as well as the abundance of abilities, you are now able to completely swap out your gear.
This enables your character to change from combat gear to tradeskill gear easily. An engineer in tradeskill gear, with tradeskill perks and maxed tradeskills is WAAAAAAY above the requirement of crafting anything available in the game. It is a waste of IP. This means, the more tradeskill items you can swap in, the less IP you have to spend on tradeskills.

Items and Buffs
Here is a list of essential items and buffs you need to have to be a capable tradeskiller as well as a capable, combat focused engineer. I have only focused on the highest possible bonus-giving items as well as some must-haves. In case of flexible QLs, I have indicated the highest possible QL bonus. Getting some of these items will be quite challenging, but hey, that's one of the beauties of the game.

Legend
-----------------------------
ME = Mechanical Engineering
EE = Electrical Engineering
QP = Quantum Physics
WS = Weapon Smithing
NP = Nano Programming
CH = Chemistry
PH = Pharmaceuticals
PS = Psychology
BE = Breaking & Entering
CL = Computer Literacy
TU = Tutoring

Code:

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ITEM                                        SLOT        ME |  EE |  QP |  WS |  NP |  CH |  PH |  PS |  BE |  CL |  TU
----------------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----
Research Attunement Device TS                H3        75 |  75 |  75 |  75 |  75 |  75 |  75        |  75 |  75 |    |
Ancient Skills Library                        U1-3        75 |  75 |  75 |  75 |  75 |  75 |  75 |    |    |    |
Primitive Focus-Funneling Helper        H2        50 |  50 |  50 |  50 |  20 |  25 |  20 |    |    |  10 |
Loving Focus-Funneling Helper                H1        50 |  50 |  50 |  50 |  20 |  25 |  20 |    |    |  10 |
Problem Solving Device                        D1-4,6        20 |  20 |  20 |  20 |  5 |  10 |  5 |    |  15 |    |
Pure Novictum Ring for the Control Unit A-RF          10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |  10 |    |  10
Catila Amano's Ring of the Mechanic        A-LF,RF  30 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |   
Muddletupper's Ring of the Mechanic        A-LF,RF  30 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
Cbik's Ring of the Electric                A-LF,RF    |  30 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | 
Quasinom de Plume's Ring of the Elec.        A-LF,RF    |  30 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    | 
Dakirn Wigglesnout's Ring of Physics        A-LF,RF    |    |  30 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |   
Gnish's Ring of Field Quantum Physics        A-LF,RF    |    |  30 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
Kredal's Ring of the Gunsmith                A-LF,RF    |    |    |  30 |    |    |    |    |    |    | 
Kritta Didymus' Ring of the Gunsmith        A-LF,RF    |    |    |  30 |    |    |    |    |    |    |
Igbert's Ring of Nano Programming        A-LF,RF    |    |    |    |  30 |    |    |    |    |    |   
Temar Eldanti's Ring of Nano Prog.        A-LF,RF    |    |    |    |  30 |    |    |    |    |    | 
Catbik's Ring of Chemistry                A-LF,RF    |    |    |    |    |  30 |    |    |    |    |   
Piip Ignatz's Ring of Chemistry                A-LF,RF    |    |    |    |    |  30 |    |    |    |    |
Exok's Ring of Pharmacy                        A-LF,RF    |    |    |    |    |    |  30 |    |    |    |
Indyana Kendan's Ring of Pharmacy        A-LF,RF    |    |    |    |    |    |  30 |    |    |    |
Fulcrum's Ring of Psychology                A-LF,RF    |    |    |    |    |    |    |  30 |    |    | 
Mukaka Nudderbolts' Ring of Psychology        A-LF,RF    |    |    |    |    |    |    |  30 |    |    | 
Repair Coordination Assistant                A-LS,RS        20 |  20 |  20 |  20 |    |    |    |    |  20 |  10 |
Control Unit Chest Plate                A-Back        25 |  25 |  25 |    |  25 |  25 |  25 |  25 |    |    |  25
Arithmetic / Combined Officer Armor        A-All        30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |    |    | 
Combined Scout Armor                        A-All        30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |    | 
Enchanced Dustbrigade Chemist Gloves        A-Hands            |    |    |    |    |  50 |  50 |    |    |  50 |  20
Gauntlets of Deformation                A-Hands        30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |  30 |    |  30 |  30
Awakened Gauntlets of Deformation        A-Hands        45 |  45 |  45 |  45 |  45 |  45 |  45 |  45 |    |  45 |  45
Candied Fruit Armband                        A-LW,RW            |    |  15 |  15 |  15 |  15 |  15 |    |    |    |
Stellar Engineer Nanodeck                H/U 1-3        60 |    |    |  60 |  45 |  30 |    |    |    |  45 |  60
Dust Brigade Creator Module                U3        32 |  32 |  32 |  32 |  32 |  32 |  32 |  32 |    |    |   
Profiteer's Helper (neut only)                A-Neck        50 |  50 |  50 |  50 | 250 |  50 |  50 |  50 |    | 250 |
Awakened Xan Merit boards                A-Neck            |    |    |    | 250 |    |    |    |    | 250 |
Sided Awakened Xan Merit boards                A-Neck            |    |    |    | 275 |    |    |    |    | 275 |
Libra's Charming Assistant                A-LS,RS            |    |    |    |    |    |    |  30 |    |    |   
Penultimate OFAB Engineer Sleeves        A-Sleeve 50 |  50 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
Penultimate OFAB Engineer Pants                A-Legs      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |  40 |
Penultimate OFAB Engineer Body                A-Chest    |    |    |  75 |    |    |    |    |    |    |
Penultimate OFAB Engineer Gloves        A-Hands    |    |    |    |    |  60 |    |    |    |    |
Penultimate OFAB Engineer Boots                A-Feet      |  58 |  58 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
OFAB Engineer Protective Gear                A-Back  70 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
Hacked Technical Library                U1        15 |  15 |  15 |  15 |  15 |    |    |    |    |    |
Augmented Master Engineer Pistol        W-RH        40 |  40 |  40 |    |  40 |    |    |    |    |    |  50
Infused Dust Brigade Engineer Pistol        W-LH,RH  30 |  30 |  30 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
Prohibited Hand-Mortar of Bacam-Xum        W-RH    120 |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |
Guardian Conductor of Focus                TOWER        38 |  38 |  38 |  38 |  38 |  38 |  38 |    |    |    |

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Code:

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KEY BUFFS                                          ME |  EE |  QP |  WS |  NP |  CH |  PH |  PS |  BE |  CL |  TU
----------------------------------------------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----
Engineer Composite Specialist Tradeskills        200 | 200 | 200 | 200 |    | 200 | 200 |    |    |    |
Composite Tradeskill Expertise                        20 |  20 |  20 |  20 |  20 |  20 |  20 |  20 |  20 |  20 |  20
Crowbar Subtlety (Eng)                                      |    |    |    |    |    |    |    |  32 |    |
Authority Figure (Crat)                                    |    |    |    |    |    |    |  50 |    |    |       
Advanced Symbol Manipulation (MP)                    |    |    |    |  92 |    |    |    |    |    |                       
Organization city HQ device buff                160 | 160 | 160 | 160 | 160 | 160 | 160 | 160 |    |    |
Composite Attribute Boost (approx. trickle)          3 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  3 |  3
Neuronal Stimulator (NT,MP, Crat) (approx.)            4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4 |  4
Coalescing Energy Cascade (aka Gauntlet buff)          2 |  2 |  2 |  2 |  2 |  2 |  2 |  2 |  2 |  2 |  2
Tutoring device buffs (ql200, req 1000 TU)        50 |  50 |  50 |  50 |  50 |  50 |  50 |  50 |    |  50 |

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Perks
You can also instantly reset your perks for free with the perk reset guy on JOBE Platform. Feeling like being a tradeskiller for two days? Just reset your perks. Even if there is an emergency, you can do another instant reset for 20 million credits.
Here are the list of perks you can invest in (numbers are cumulative at each level of the perk):

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General perks
Enchance DNA (10)        +11 to all tradeskills at level 10 from trickle-down
Genius (3)                +7 (approx.) to all tradeskills at level 3 from trickle-down
Solitus Sec. Gen. (10)        +6 (approx.) to all tradeskills at level 10 from trickle-down - AI perkline
Opifex Sec. Gen. (10)        +4 (approx.) to all tradeskills at level 10 from trickle-down - AI perkline
Atrox Sec. Gen. (10)        +4 (approx.) to all tradeskills at level 10 from trickle-down - AI perkline
Nanomage Pri. Gen.(10)        +10 (approx.) to all tradeskills at level 10 from trickle-down - AI perkline

Group perks
Alchemist (6)                15/35/60/90/130/200 CH, PH
Illogical Patterns (8)        20/40/60/80/100/120/140/160 ME, EE, QP, WS, TU - AI perkline
The Unknown Factor (8)        20/40/60/80/100/120/140/160 PH, NP, CH, PS - AI perkline
Tinkerer (4)                10/22/38/65 ME, EE, QP

Profession perks
Gadgeteer (10)                2/4/7/10/14/19/25/32/41/55 ME, EE, QP, 2/5/9/14/20/27/35/44/54/70 WS
Mechanic (10)                3/7/12/18/25/33/42/52/63/80 ME, EE, QP, 6/13/21/30/40/51/64/80/100/130 WS

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Before I knew it I'd read half of all of this and found that I thoroughly enjoyed the tips.

Some editing in terms of bullet points, head lines, paragraphs etc. etc. would make this guide complete. If you add that we can hope someone comes around to sticky it and replace previous guides.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aramsunat

Dreadloch Shen Sticks - Drops from Dreadloch bosses. Has higher minimum damage than fists, but lower maximum damage and crits. Recommended for SL. Do not dual equip otherwise you lose the 3rd MA attack.
Kuma Tonfa - Base weapon drops from the Beast, upgrade drops from Legacy of the Xan instances. Same stats as the Shen sticks, but also has Fast Attack. Most likely as an engi you have better things to spend IP on than fast attack though.
Viral Force Blades - Upgraded from Blades of Boltar. Apart from looking cool, it is quite useless for engies. Has lower stats than the above two, but has Sneak Attack. But again, MA engi is useless in PVP.

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You don't lose the MA attack if you duel-wield MA weapons. You actually get 3 attacks:

Weapon 1
Weapon 2
Fist

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Avari

Before I knew it I'd read half of all of this and found that I thoroughly enjoyed the tips.

Some editing in terms of bullet points, head lines, paragraphs etc. etc. would make this guide complete. If you add that we can hope someone comes around to sticky it and replace previous guides.

---

Thanks

I will do the fancy stuff later, I just dumped all in my txt to the forum :) will fix the eye-hurting wall of text later

Quote:

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Originally Posted by derishen

You don't lose the MA attack if you duel-wield MA weapons. You actually get 3 attacks:

Weapon 1
Weapon 2
Fist

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My bad, will correct it

Wow man, this is a really nice guide.

I'd just add one weapon. I use a 220 Massive bolt charger on my 150 Engi for S10 and PVP, and it's rock solid for damage, and because it checks duck, it's actually half decent for PVP. I can hit anyone reliably except advy/MA/fixer in DoF, and GA fixers.

I might have to bump my enforcer guide...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by McKnuckleSamwich

I'd just add one weapon. I use a 220 Massive bolt charger

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Good point, added it.
Also made the guide pretty

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aramsunat

Also made the guide pretty

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Aaahhh, my eyes no longer hurt :p

Great job !

It makes me sad that agent and nt are some of the toughest opponents for engies now when they used to be tasty little snacks. And these days you will encounter more of these 2 profs than most anything else.

Do you feel like the drone things change the value of Sharp Obj. at all for engineers? I see a lot of TL5s using them. 20% nanodrain or an unavoidable attack (maybe 2kish dmg at TL7?) might be useful, and the Pacification Drone isn't a terrible HUD item anyway since it adds HP.

Good guide tho.

Don't forget to make a bag of Inactive Cyborg Service Tower Quality level: 225 for PVP. It give a nice bonus and master biding can be cast on it (it land on miss)

Eh? Folks still come around here? :D

Karma Harvest isn't mentioned, only Crowbar Subtlety is.

I think this should be rooted.