I never liked this class. His teleporters and dispensers can be nice but can also hurt the whole team, so I guess that's ok. However, the main thing about engineer is his sentry gun. This thing basically creates stalemates and chokes, which greatly limits tactical play, movement and generally turns the whole game into trying to outspam the other team.

Even when the engineer is in your team, you still suffer from him, as his gun will naturally push the enemy team back tighter together, making it harder to deal with them in the future, once again bringing everything down to just spamming the hell out of the choke.

This class is also unfairly easy and even boring, compared to other supports. And his unlocks suck.

Sentry gun go brrrrr

I mean, TF2 is the chokepoint warfare simulator that’s built around uber pushes, so you need something with some knockback to make that more difficult.

A level three teleporter can win games

I think people like the idea of playing Engineer. Even if they don't like playing Engineer in practice.

I think that Engineer is a bit overhated though. I have never seen a sentry gun be super oppressive unless it was a super sweaty match where literally everyone on defense played around it and there was a Pyro spychecking and denying ubers 24/7. Usually this only happens on Payload and Attack/Defend even if those two factors are the case.

I strongly disagree that Engineer is easy. I think it's very easy for your stuff to get destroyed if your head isn't on a swivel 24/7, especially in pubs when most teams do not play around their Engineer. Granted, I do suck at Engineer and main the class that basically plays in the complete opposite way (Spy) so take that all with a grain of salt.

I do agree that Engineer is very boring (and/or extremely stressful when things get going). But that is subjective.

>teleporters and dispensers can be nice but can also hurt the whole team

I feel like an Engineer's Teleporter and/or Dispenser placement is hurting the team, then that's that guy's fault.

These two buildings are actually my favorite part of playing the class because you can wordlessly influence your team with where you place 'em.

The team can't push through one choke? Move the Tele a little closer to a flank and you might get more folks walking through there.

The team did manage to push forward? Do we move the gear up? Are they too far forward that one should just rebuild some buildings from scratch? Are you expecting the enemy to push them back so don't even bother?

Sometimes the right choice is obvious, but when it isn't you do get to feel a bit like a commander, a conductor, a cat herder, etc.

Well, yeah. As a medic main, I take great joy whenever I destroy one of those pricks' nest. But you could provide the same knockback with a heavy. A sentry gun is basically a parody of a heavy that aims without a player, can be healed faster and never takes crits. It's still worse but good enough to take away the potential for personal skill expression of many classes.

I am not trying to say that engineer is overpowered or underpowered, of course. He is perfectly balanced, he is just annoying to play both with and against.

Yeah i agree, this is a very good thing about engie. But it's just one small thing on top of a chokepoint creation simulator.

You know, this is a very good thing. You can do that with other support classes (f.e. keeping a mental profile of most players as a medic and spreading your heals according to what that person is gonna do with extra hp) but engineer is the one that can provide the most stress-free experience.

If only wrangler didn't exist.

It is easy to lose all of your stuff but it is also easy to place it back. More skilled engineers patrol around their buildings but most just sit there. Thinking about the placement of your stuff may not be easy, so that it's not destroyed immediately, but once it's done, you don't really have to worry about it. If it gets broken too quickly for you to notice, there must've been a problem with the placement. If the spot itself is good, then you will be able to save things in time.

Medics, on the other hand, have to constantly choose between people and keep a getaway route in their head. Of course, many pub medics just shove a vacc beam up their pocket's behind but that's a far rarer sight than a wrangled lvl3 sentry.

I may sound like a masochist but engineer is not stressful enough. That's what I meant when I said he is too easy.

Omg uncle dane commented under my post, i love your videos :3

Engineer is probably my favorite class to play. I love juggling keeping my buildings online or setting them up. Seeing as I play payload and 5cp the most, the dynamic objectives in those modes means I’m always moving things around and there’s always something for me to be doing. Thus, I rarely find the class boring. It certainly can be boring if all you do is set up and turtle, but you don’t have to do that and I’d argue the game rewards you more for not doing that. It’s much easier to catch kills by putting your sentry in a weird or extremely forward spot if you can get away with it. If you do park the sentry somewhere and then forget about it, you can (and should) still play dynamically with your teleporter and dispenser, since they can often make the difference between winning or losing.

I also disagree that he’s particularly easy. His primary weapon is most characters’ secondary. Shotgun is strong but most classes have something stronger. You’re medium speed and only have 125 health. Assuming you’re maintaining your equipment in a way that helps your team, you’re an important target for the enemy team, arguably the most important behind the medic. Snipers are gonna be out for you, demo and soldier are gonna aim for your gear or dive to kill you, the spy exists, and medics will spend their uber to tear a hole in your defense. As engineer, you’re naturally being pitted up against a lot of different enemies. How you and your equipment are positioned are a big factor in whether you’re at a major disadvantage or have an even playing field in any given scenario. If you play well, you can win almost any 1v1 you find yourself in. This dynamic is another reason I find the class so satisfying to play. Uncle Dane’s How to Fight Every Class as Engineer video kind of outlines what all you’re up against, and I think it’s a great watch.

Your main focus in this post is the sentry, and I think that might be part of why you think he sucks. I’d recommend trying out the Gunslinger (mini sentry) and seeing how that feels to play with. Maybe focus on building teleporters and dispensers to help your team more. The mini sentry and extra 25 health are just kind of a bonus if you play that way. Bonus points for using the widowmaker since it’s a shotgun with infinite ammo if you can aim. That loadout might train you out of the sentry gun mentality since the mini sentry becomes an afterthought.

I don’t know how you can come to the conclusion that most of his unlocks suck other than not having tried them much. With the exception of the pomson 6000, every one of his unlocks provides a cool upside and a balanced downside that completely change how you play him. I find myself changing loadouts regularly between and in the middle of matches. I’m not a huge fan of the rescue ranger, but I’m constantly switching between the stock shotgun, frontier justice, and widowmaker while also switching wrenches depending on the game state. I basically always have the wrangler equipped but I don’t use it as much as some people do, and I have huge respect for the pistol engies out there.

Hopefully my thoughts give you some insight. No shame for not liking him tho, everyone has their preferences. I suck at spy, and am bored to death as medic and sniper. Other people exclusively play those characters and never touch engie.

Uncle Dane didn't invent common sense