Thoughts on Engineer and support in general in BfN

I wanted to post about this character and get others' opinions as well. I played a lot of Engineer in GW1 as I like helping get teleporters up and the drones were both fun (I really miss the drones, even if I do like the Parrot). In GW2, it was similar although I never liked the big bolt blaster as much as the drones (not saying it's bad, it's not, but I don't find it as fun).

In BfN I find the Engineer to be one of the least exciting classes to play, and not just from the lack of teleporters to build. All too often you just setup that turret and hang around in its aura, spamming bouncing bombs to the point where they're frustrating to play against. Last night in TT, there was a particular player who is obviously using the extra bounce upgrade and just spammed constantly, causing a lot of damage as we tried to push the cart on Tourist Trap and Turning Point without exposing themselves to return fire.

The idea behind the Engineer isn't really a problem, it's the execution. I'll be 100% honest here; I think the Engineer should not benefit from their own turret, that would go a long way towards making the character more support oriented if the turret aura helped teammates but not yourself, and this may have to expand to not letting any engineer benefit from any turret, just to avoid 'Engineer parks'.

The support characters in BfN don't feel quite as supportive as one would expect; especially Engineer and Scientists with Steam Blaster. As someone who plays tanks and healers (support) a lot in these games, I'd like to see the support characters be more supportive, much like the Thorn Apart legendary upgrade both gives Rose some heavy burst and rewards her for supporting her team. They don't need to be heal bots, in fact please don't do that, but at the very least; Engineers and Steam Blaster Scientists feel more like attack characters than support.

(Edit: one could say Engineers feel more like defensive rather than attack characters, either way, they don't feel like they support their team, they feel mostly like they support themselves).

24 Replies

TheSprinter85
Hero
6 years ago
Engineers can deal damage from really far away and behind cover a bit like a Sniper, and he can deal a lot of damage quickly. I also find him to be quite self-supportive as well, because I’ve seen many Engineers use their abilities solely to support themselves. I would say that Engineer is a bit of each class, and him, along with most of the other plant and zombie supports deal more damage than they should.
Shadowphinx101
6 years ago
@Iron_Guard8 Honestly, I feel Wizard is the best zombie support class, in a pvz shooter, period. I really despise engineer because of his annoying arc in the projectiles. Honestly, I think he needs a legendary upgrade, and Steam Blaster was honestly so contradictory because they want you to play Scientist as support, until they give possibly the strongest weapon with the highest DPS in the game rn.
Iron_Guard8
Legend
6 years ago
@Shadowphinx101 I would agree; Wizard indeed feels like they support their team and is an original and fun character to boot. One of the best ideas I've seen in any shooter.
Shadowphinx101
6 years ago
@Iron_Guard8 He is actually so much fun lol.
CharlesHlcBende
6 years ago
I think turret's buff is excessive and only affects small area.
It is relatively difficult one turret affect two or more zombies because of its effect area.
That buff may be nerfed and that area may be widen.
GutmanSca
6 years ago
I think just removing his bouncy shots and making the Heavy Helper buff only applicable to allies would actually fix the character.
In the case of other Supports, they are all broken imo. Sunflower and Scientist can make their team indestructible because of overhealing still being broken, and the fact that both of them are IMORTAL. TF2 shows us how to balance healing much better than PvZ.
Rose and Wizard are special cases, Rose has the most broken ability in this game (Goatify) and Wizard has a OP primary that can camp miles way using it.
Shadowphinx101
6 years ago
@GutmanSca I think the goatify AOE and it's size should be nerfed. When dropoff occurs, I think Wizard will be OK, but rn, he does do a lot of damage.
Provin915
Seasoned Veteran
6 years ago
Nice post. I also miss the Engineer from GW1/2. It was more of a support character than in BfN. In BfN, I feel Engineer is more a defensive character.
People complain the character is OP, but I don't share that opinion. Sure, the speedboost might be too much. But next to that what makes the character incredibly strong? Stun? Engineer has had the stun since the first game, which is a great ability on a decent cooldown timer.
The fact that you can have increased shooting speed AND infinite ammo near your turret is ridiculously broken. Was this * even tested in beta? How can this get passed through testing...
On attack, it's strong as well. On defense naturally, it shines. You can easily choke flanks and even suppress large open fields.
Remove the ammo regeneration near the turret and you will have a balanced engineer. Which other reasons are there to nerf the character? The projectiles are bouncy and it's hard to hit Garlic Drones if players have good control. With 125HP you're still a squishy target. The speed boost is nice and the duration isn't that long to make it game-breaking.
malfinman
6 years ago
@Provin915 ''remove the ammo regeneration near the turret'' - Exactly this! Many ppl agreed that engineer should be nerfed somehow but everyone had different opinion on that, I really like this with the ammo regen, there is no need to nerf him any more than that.
agqwpe663oe6
6 years ago
@Iron_Guard8 He’s just pure annoyance since he can bum a turret and vanquish anything that moves. He should only be able to give a buff to teammates.