[RESOLVED] Engi loadout advice?

[Lightning Gunne]

Edit: I've decided to go with Alecto's cyborg loadout, minus the skins for now.

Surprise...! It's me again.

 

I wasn't a big fan of playing Engi several years back, and back then I just settled on a Texas Tin-Gallon and my "cosmetic filler" Deus Specs. Still, somewhere along the way I was advised that I should get some kind of jacket for him, so I settled on the Antarctic Researcher after a couple years of keeping that advice in the back of my mind.

 

But these days, I've been playing a lot of Engi (only in MvM because I only really play community MvM these days, but whatever), and I've decided that, along with some more kill counters, I could use a better-looking loadout, as I kinda feel that the Deus Specs really don't add much. Unfortunately, though, I really don't know what I could replace it with, or if I could (also) replace either of the other 2 cosmetics for better ones.

 

Besides new cosmetic items, I also aim to get later on:
- a Strange Wrench (skin, Botkiller or Australium?), mainly for counting tank kills and robot Spies whacked to death
- a Strange Widowmaker for counting tank kills
- a better skin for my Rescue Ranger (not sure if I want a Strange one but whatever)
 

Here's my Engi loadout with my RR and Widowmaker: https://imgur.com/a/AkpSI8Z

 

Thanks for reading, and hope to see your advice.

[FP jh34ghu43gu]

Just so you know only one weapon gets tank killed credit and it's whatever weapon you're holding when the tank dies, regardless of if it was dealing damage or not (but you did have to deal damage to the tank recently).

And you're probably already aware based on "robot Spies whacked to death" but in case you aren't; no strange parts will count sentry kills against robots unless it's a wrangler and you got the kill using the wrangler.

 

Put giants part on the widowmaker too.

 

I'm still holding out hope they add this before I get any warpaints for mvm. Also jag > wrench unless you're trying to flex an australium/golden.

 

No fashion advice because as you can see below I have a great sense for it.

https://imgur.com/9OnMItO

[Lightning Gunne]

2 minutes ago, FP jh34ghu43gu said:

Just so you know only one weapon gets tank killed credit and it's whatever weapon you're holding when the tank dies, regardless of if it was dealing damage or not (but you did have to deal damage to the tank recently).

I'm aware of that, which is why I'm getting multiple Tanks Destroyed Parts for each of the weapons that I use against tanks, so don't worry. I just didn't think that was relevant to mention in the original thread.

 

4 minutes ago, FP jh34ghu43gu said:

And you're probably already aware based on "robot Spies whacked to death" but in case you aren't; no strange parts will count sentry kills against robots unless it's a wrangler and you got the kill using the wrangler.

My usual way of confronting Spybots has been to run up to them and whack them while baiting them into attacking me and dropping their disguise so my sentry can shoot them... but I suppose I could also consider other ways.

 

11 minutes ago, FP jh34ghu43gu said:

Also jag > wrench unless you're trying to flex an australium/golden.

The stock Wrench repairs buildings faster and has better DPS against tanks, so no, hard disagree.

[Scott Bakula]

I'm personally of the attitude of keeping as many different cosmetic items on hand as possible so I can freely change on a whim (Much rather fill my backpack with stuff to use than currency). Plus, it's nice having a visually distinctive look for each loadout.

 

For reference/inspiration, here's my engi loadouts:

[n_n]

Get strange battery canteens for MVM and a separate one for regular play. Uses the 4th slot and can add any of those strange parts you want to get. Acts like a universal stat tracker.

[Alecto]

On the topic of the tank destroyed thing - Can get a strange cosmetic and put it on that if you want all your engi tank kills in one spot but seperate from the other classes

 

On the fashion topic, engineer is probably the hardest to put together a good looking but still somewhat unique set that's not sherriff/hillbilly imo - lots of decent but not great cosmetics, most of them are either part of a set or don't fit together well with much else

To fit with your cyborg sets on other classes I'll suggest:

Brain interface (painted After Eight)

Iron Lung

Batter's Bracers

Fits nicely with Kiln and Conquer war paint which fortunately is relatively inexpensive

 

Otherwise there's always:

Aloha Apparel

Marxman

Goblineer

Cardboard Boxed Weapons

 

Everyone will take you very seriously

[FP jh34ghu43gu]

4 hours ago, n_n said:

Get strange battery canteens for MVM and a separate one for regular play. Uses the 4th slot and can add any of those strange parts you want to get. Acts like a universal stat tracker.

Chads use duck journal in mvm to quack the robots into submission.

 

Also OP I'd recommend placing a buy order if you get these, the sellers all spiked like 2-3 keys up this week after briefly hitting a reasonable 8-9 keys.

5 hours ago, Lightning Gunne said:

The stock Wrench repairs buildings faster and has better DPS against tanks, so no, hard disagree.

But why would you melee the tank... widowmaker and wrangler* both cost <= $400 and do more than either $800 max swing speed.

In my experience you refill ammo more than repair a sentry (especially against tanks), in this regards jag is superior since it doesn't have an ammo restored nerf. And on the health nerf; consider the fact that an mvm sentry has a massive increase in health over casual sentries so health/time is usually more important than just straight health/swing. Over time it only comes out to about +7.5% more health restored from stock over the jag which is pretty negligible (difference of 9 hp/sec no swing upgrade). Maybe I'm just turbo biased from hating building canteens in 2cities so the jag building time is more important to me than someone who spams canteens /shrug. Also sorry for ruining the fashion advice thread.

 

*Didn't test wrangler but I'm fairly certain it does since it triples sentry firing speed with 1 tick of the firing speed upgrade and the bar to beat is only 140dps (maybe 200 with generous random crits).

 

5 hours ago, Lightning Gunne said:

My usual way of confronting Spybots has been to run up to them and whack them while baiting them into attacking me and dropping their disguise so my sentry can shoot them... but I suppose I could also consider other ways.

That's fine I was just letting you know outside wrangler sentry kills it's impossible to track their kills for mvm. It makes me sad

 

[Lightning Gunne]

13 hours ago, FP jh34ghu43gu said:

18 hours ago, n_n said:

Get strange battery canteens for MVM and a separate one for regular play. Uses the 4th slot and can add any of those strange parts you want to get. Acts like a universal stat tracker.

Chads use duck journal in mvm to quack the robots into submission.

Pass on both of those. Battery Canteens don't look that great and don't even show what powerup the wearer has equipped, and I won't have ducks getting in the way of my frames, sight and hearing.

 

13 hours ago, FP jh34ghu43gu said:

But why would you melee the tank... widowmaker and wrangler both cost <= $400 and do more than either $800 max swing speed.

- Wrangling the tank is probably best for the early game and what I usually do then, when I haven't bought enough swing speed yet, and it's safer when engaging tanks from a distance where getting in close to whack or shoot it would put you too close to the other bots and get killed, but it ties the sentry down to tank duty and prevents it from doing other duties like guarding your team's backlines against fast and hard-to-hit robots or guarding the bomb when it's far behind your team, on top of being much more metal-consuming. On the other hand, whacking the tank frees the sentry to do whatever you need it to do, whether that be either of the two duties mentioned above, or just helping you along with the tank.
- By using the Widowmaker, you give up the Rescue Ranger. I'll change to Widowmaker on tank-heavy waves in the late-game, but I prefer to be able to keep my RR for most waves.

So "why would you melee the tank"... no. Terrible way of thinking. Wrangling, shooting and whacking them all do well when you let them.

I do concede that maybe I should try out the Jag more, but that'll probably have to wait. After all, my next trimester starts next week, and I need to be ready to phase out of TF2 soon.

 

13 hours ago, FP jh34ghu43gu said:

Maybe I'm just turbo biased from hating building canteens in 2cities so the jag building time is more important to me than someone who spams canteens /shrug.

Ah, another Jay Leno wannabe, I see. Pity you'd have to pay me to laugh at that.

Building canteens are cheap and easily worth the seemingly few extra seconds saved getting a dispenser and/or a level 3 back up, and don't forget that they can also restore built buildings to full health, which is great in situations where you need to tank and/or sentryblock with the sentry for longer than your sentry can handle with just its base HP, even when wrangled AND with maxed out Building Health.

[AD⚡HD]

On 1/2/2022 at 3:00 AM, Scott Bakula said:

I'm personally of the attitude of keeping as many different cosmetic items on hand as possible so I can freely change on a whim (Much rather fill my backpack with stuff to use than currency). Plus, it's nice having a visually distinctive look for each loadout.

 

For reference/inspiration, here's my engi loadouts:

Do you voluntarily use g fetti or did you like lose a bet