WildStar Engineer DPS Guide

WildStar Engineer DPS Guide by Carthh

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Abbreviations
3. Basics
3.1 Weapon/Armor
3.2 Race/Path/Profession
3.3 Resources
3.3.1 Volatility
3.4 Self Snare
4. Abilities
5. LAS/Builds
5.0.1 Amp Locations
5.1 PvE
5.1.1 The Rotation
5.1.2 Genetic Archives
5.1.3 Datascape
5.2 PvP
5.2.1 1v1 Match Ups (Coming Soon)
5.3 Leveling
6. Stats
6.1 Runes
6.1.1 Rune Sets
7. Raid Consumables
8. BIS Gear List
9. Advanced
10. Addons

1. Introduction

What exactly is an Engineer? “Decked out in mechanical armor, Engineers unleash destructive long- range attacks while deploying a powerful posse of bots in battle. Never before have wrenches inspired such dread.” This guide is intended to be a source of information to help others excel in becoming the best DPS Engineer they can be. It will be centered mostly on DPS builds, abilities, rotations, and anything else related to the damage side of the Engineer class.

2. Abbreviations
AB – Artillery bot or Arty bot
BB – Bruiser Bot
BC – Bolt Caster
BS – Bio Shell
CR – Code Red
DB – Diminisher bot or Dbot
EA – Energy Auger
MS – Mortar Strike
OV – Obstruct Vision
PB – Pulse Blast
PDU – Personal Defense Unit
QB – Quick Burst
RB – Repair Bot
RM – Recursive Matrix
SI – Shatter Impairment
TA – Target Acquisition
UA – Unstable Anomaly
UW – Urgent Withdrawal
VI – Volatile Injection
VR – Volatility Rising

3. Basics

3.1 Weapon/Armor

The weapon of choice for the Engineer is the Heavy Gun combined with their arsenal of bots. Also, the Engineer is one of two Heavy Armor wearing classes, the other being the Warrior. The Engineer is restricted to using only the Heavy Gun, but can technically wear any level of gear.

3.2 Race/Path/Profession

In Wildstar, you race has exactly zero effect on your DPS and is only for aesthetic reasons.  The Engineer has six race choices, three for Exile: Human, Granok, and Mordesh and three for Dominion: Cassian, Chua, and Mechari.  The same goes for your path and professions as well, no matter which you choose it will not affect your combat output capabilities in anyway.

3.3 Resources

The Engineer has one type of resource to manage: Volatility. As you damage enemies or activate certain amps, you will slowly gain your Volatility resource up to a maximum of 100. You then have abilities that you can use that consume your volatility.

3.3.1 Volatility

You have a few different ways to generate volatility. The first and easiest way to generate volatility is through your abilities. By casting them and damaging your enemy, you are able to gain volatility. The next two ways are through amps. The most notable amp is Volatility Rising, where if you are between 30 and 70 volatility you will continue to gain 7 volatility every 1.5s. The other amp is Reckless Dash, where dashing will generate 20 volatility. The last way to generate Volatility is through our innate which gives us 10 Volatility every second for 10 seconds.

3.4 Self Snare

Any time the Engineer casts any spell, they can be completely mobile but will be induce a 25% slow on themselves that slows them down while they try to move and cast at the same time.

4. Abilities

Listed below will be the main abilities you will be using as a DPS Engineer. If you want to see every ability I suggest using this website: http://ws-base.com/builds/generator/engineer
*Not ws-base tooltips tend to not always be up to date so confirm with in game tooltips to be sure.

Skills ranked 1 (poor) to 5 (great)

Innate

Mode: Eradiate
Passive – Increases damage dealt by 35% and decreases all resistances by 7%.
Active – Enter the Eradication ExoSuit for 10.0s
Eradication ExoSuit: Gain 10 volatility per second. When dealing direct damage deal an additional 3954 technology damage once per 2.5s to 3 foes within 5m of your victim. Reduces incoming healing by 50%.

One of, if not the best Innate in the game in my opinion, this thing does everything a dps would ever want it to. With Volatility Rising, popping this near 70 V basically guarantees unlimited Volatility for the next 10 seconds allowing you to spam your spender the entire time. On top of that, dealing damage causes you to deal additional aoe damage to your target and those around them. You should be looking to use this as often as you can and saving it for anytime there is going to be two or more targets next to each other that you can hit. Most of the time, the healing reduction will go unnoticed, but it is something to keep in mind if you are low on health, make sure to not pop this as a defensive unless you are positive you are going to kill whatever is killing you before it kills you. It also removes the self snare that occurs when you cast or channel any spells giving you free mobility. Aside from all this, you look like a badass.

Assault

Pulse Blast    Range: 25m  Cost: Generate 15V  Cast Time: 1.25s Cooldown: None  Type: Freeform Mobile    Rank: 3
Deal damage and generate volatility. Foes down the middle of the blast take more damage.
T4:  While between 30 and 70 volatility generate an additional 5 volatility
T8: Empower: Increases outgoing damage by 9.5% for 6s
Thoughts: Great starter ability, but eventually gets out classed by our other builders. I like the zone mechanic of the damage, not only the reduced damage as you get further from the middle, but also the reduced range makes a lot of sense. The T8 is still up in the air at this point, I really thought it would be a must have but it still doesn’t seem to be performing well enough to use. Still a great PvP skill and great leveling skill before Bio Shell T4 and Energy Auger.

Electrocute    Range: 20m  Cost: 8v/tick  Cast Time: 3s channel  Cooldown: None  Type: Freeform Mobile    Rank: 4
Deal technology damage to foes every 0.5s
T4: Empower: Increases technology damage by 2.5% per stack. Stacks up to 6 times
T8: Foes affected by Blind or Stun receive 350 technology damage every 0.25s for .5s
Thoughts: Amazing skill and I really want to give it a 5 but the self snare and the new reduced range is the only thing holding it back. That being said, the skill would be completely over powered if it didn’t self snare and I 100% agree it is a perfect trade off for what it does. It is not only amazing aoe, but can also be a pretty potent single target skill. It also costs Volatility per tick, rather than having a base cost then ticking cost making it even better and makes you not afraid to clip ticks and cut it short.

Quick Burst    Range: 25m Cost: None  Cast Time: Instant Cooldown: 8s  Type: Freeform  Rank: 5
Deal technology damage. Only usable after landing a critical hit.
T4: Pierces 40% armor
T8: While above 80 volatility deal additional technology damage.
Thoughts: I can’t find a downside to this ability and can not find a reason you would never use it any build. It procs off crits, but with both Electrocute and Bolt Caster you have tons of chances to get just one crit. Not only is it a 25m range, it is a huge cone in front of you. On top of all of this, it is off the GCD and you can cast it during Electrocute without it interrupting it. The only downside to this ability is the that each tier of ability points is next to worthless in how little it gives, along with the T4 of armor pierce being nearly just as worthless.

Artillery Bot    Range: 30m  Cost: None   Cast Time: Instant  Cooldown: 15s   Type: Self   Rank: 5
Create an Artillery Bot that deals physical damage to 1 foe every 2s. While active you gain access to barrage.
Barrage: Deal physical damage to 10 foes within a 10m targeting field every 0.5s for 3s
T4: Grant yourself and Artillery Bot an Empower: Increases critical hit chance by 6.5%
T8: Barrage now applies a snare: reduces movement speed by 70% for 1s
Thoughts: Another skill I couldn’t find a single downside to. The only one you might consider is the AI sometimes is wonky or a boss mechanic will one shot it, but for the most part a lot of bosses have been changed to not damage pets, and even some boss mechanics target pets making it even better or your group (but this isn’t intended and should be fixed soon enough). The basic attack is good damage and on top of that, the active is also amazing single and multi target damage. One of the hidden advantages of it, is the Barrage does not stick to the target it hits, it continues to fire on that spot. Meaning if the first add you hit moves out, your aoe will continue raining down on the others. The T4 is a ton of crit and should be in almost every build as well.

Energy Auger    Range: 30m Cost: Generate 30V  Cast Time: 1.75s Cooldown: 6s   Type: Freeform Mobile   Rank: 4
Deal physical damage to foes, create a 30m field for 3s, and generate 30 volatility. Foes inside the field take technology damage every 0.5s
T4: Each tick will apply a wound to foes for 3s. Wound: Deals technology damage every 1s
T8: Field now applies a snare: reduces movement speed by 35% for 3s
Thoughts: I actually really love this skill, the animation is cool and the instant damage combined with the field aoe is really neat. The only problem is, it doesn’t do anything better than any other skill. Electrocute still does more aoe damage than it, and you can move Electrocute while EA is stuck on the ground. It also has a cast time that is longer than the GCD of T4 Bio Shell and doesn’t buff Electrocute like Bio Shell does. All that being said, I still like the skill and it is great for openers as you can cast EA into an instant cast Bio Shell to really jump up in Volatility. You can also use it while leveling if you find you can keep your Volatility up between pulls.

Bio Shell    Range: 25m  Cost: Generate 30V  Cast Time: 2s  Cooldown: 10s  Type: Freeform Mobile   Rank: 4
Fire a projectile that detonates upon impacting an enemy or reaching its maximum range. Generate volatility. Detonation deals physical damage and applies an expose to the target and 4 foes.
Expose: Reduces Technology Resistance by 7% for 11s
T4: Instance cast while between 30 and 70 volatility
T8: Expose now reduces armor instead of Technology Resistance
Thoughts: The skill starts out pretty average nothing really great at all, and then you get to the T4 and this skill skyrockets to one of our most valuable skills. Going from a 2 second cast to instant cast is an immense advantage in nearly every build. It works great in Electrocute builds to help keep your Volatility up and buffs Electrocute damage at the same time. It also is obviously amazing in Bolt Caster builds as the T4 of Bolt caster really shortens the cooldown of BS. The only drawback with it is when you are hitting more than one enemy but they aren’t quite stacked on each other, BS will only hit the first target. But once again, that is a perfectly fine drawback for everything this skill already does.

Mortar Strike    Range: 25m Cost: 50V  Cast Time: Instant Cooldown: None  Type: Freeform   Rank: 2
Fire an energy mortar that detonates upon impacting a foe or reaching its maximum range. Detonation deals technology damage to the target and 4 foes. Deal damage to foes I nthe center of the blast and damage to nearby foes.
T4: Center damage area increased to 3m
T8: Targets in the center area are pushed back 4m
Thoughts: I have really tried to get this skill to work but I just can’t quite figure it out. I understood what they were going for here, but I feel the Volatility cost is just way too high for it to be a spammable spender. The best thing they could do for it is something along the lines of a T4 or probably T8 where if you hit a target in the center it refunds half the Volatility cost or something like that. Otherwise, it is pretty lackluster compared to the other spenders.

Unstable Anomaly Range: 30m  Cost: None   Cast Time:  Instant Cooldown: 10s  Type: Freeform   Rank: 4
Fire an orb that detonates upon hitting a foe or reaching the end of its path. The detonation deals technology damage and applies a wound to the target and 4 foes within 5m.
Wound: Reduces incoming healing by 30% for 10s
T4: Applies Overload: Disables shields for 4.5s
T8: Healing reduction increased to 75% on blind or stunned foes
Thoughts: Amazing PvP skill, especially with both the T4 and T8 that can be utilized in any coordinated group play. It does a little bit of damage and gives a very solid healing debuff. Although healing debuffs are one of the top priorities for dispels now, you can still coordinate them pretty well with another class to have good uptime, or save this for your burst phase and catch them with it during your stun or blind.

Bolt Caster    Range: 30m Cost: 25V  Cast Time: Instant  Cooldown:  None Type: Freeform   Rank: 4
Fire 5 shells that each deal physical damage to 1 foe.
T4: Each shell that hits a foe will reduce Bio Shell’s cooldown by 0.5s
T8: If foe has no shields deal additional physical damage
Thoughts: Great single target spell, sometimes referred to as the shotgun spec. It does not slow you down in any way, has an incredibly long range, and is fairly forgiving when it comes to hitting all 5 bolts. Perfect Volatility cost, the GCD feels rights, amazing T4 and T8, I can’t find anything to complain about this skill. The only thing is it is single target, but it would be pretty overpowered and broken if it could hit multiple targets.

Target Acquisition Range: 40m Cost: Generate 3V per mark CastTime: 3s channel Cooldown: 16s   Type: Freeform   Rank: 3
Apply 1 mark to a foe and generate 3 volatility every 0.25s. Consume all applied marks on channel end dealing technology damage to affected foes based on the number of marks consumed. Marks can be applied to multiple foes and can stack up to 12 times on a single foe.
T4: Deal technology damage to your marked target and 4 foes within 5m
T8: When target is above 50% health deal additional technology damage.
Thoughts: Pretty cool concept for a skill and it can definitely be used in builds, but I do not find it very practical in most dungeon and raid builds. While you will probably generally be able to get the full 3 second cast off, I don’t see any reason to bring this when you can just stick with Bio Shell or Energy Auger which are both shorter cast times, do comparable damage, have better telegraphs, and aren’t punished as hard if you need to move while casting them.

Utility

Zap    Range: 25m Cost: None Cast Time: Instant Cooldown: 30s  Type: Freeform   Rank: 4.5
Deal physical damage and apply a stun to 5 foes.
Stun: Prevents any action for 2.5s. Destroys 1 interrupt armor.
T4: Destroys 2 interrupt armor
T8: Expose: Reduces enemy deflect critical chance by 37.7%
Thoughts: Amazing CC, it’s a stun and instant cast with an instant animation. Great T4, it will be used plenty in Dungeons and Adventures. Nothing to complain about this except the stun duration is a tad short, but is a good balancing point for how strong the skill is.

Urgent Withdrawal    Range: 15m Cost: None  Cast Time: Instant Cooldown: 20s  Type: Self   Rank: 3
Deal physical damage to foes, apply a snare, and propel yourself backwards 12m. Has 2 charges.
Snare: Reduces movement speed by 36% for 4s. Stacks up to 2 times.
T4: Remove root and snare effects from yourself
T8: Amount of charges available increased to 3
Thoughts: Sometimes referred to as the worst movement cooldown in the game, but I feel quite the opposite. Sure it’s no Pounce or Urgency, but it can do lots of things that others can’t including changing direction in the air multiple times. The reason that it is only a 3, is because it really isn’t very good unless tiered up, and you aren’t ever going to have enough spare ability points to just through in there to have it. The T8 is also just incredibly fun around town and when trying to skip trash packs in dungeons. Couple other neat things are you receive all your charges back when it is done charging, and the snare stacks up when you use more than one on the same target making it superb for kiting.

Recursive Matrix    Range: 20m Cost: None  Cast Time: Instant Cooldown: 30s  Type: Self   Rank: 2
Create a 20m field around you, lasting 10s. Allies inside the field receive a Defense and a Stalwart.
Defense: Increases deflect chance by 5%
Stalwart: Increases CC resilience by 28%
T4: If between 30 and 70 volatility grant an absorb for 10s to yourself and your allies nearby
T8: When attacks are deflected, deal physical damage to the attacker
Thoughts: Pretty useless all around except for the T4 which is really it’s only redeeming quality. I could maybe see this being decent in organized Battlegrounds, but outside that there’s not much place for it elsewhere.

Diminisher Bot Range: 25m Cost: None  Cast Time: Instant Cooldown: 25s  Type: Self   Rank: 3
Create a Diminisher Bot that deals technology damage to 1 foe every 2s. While active, you gain access to Strobe.
Strobe: Deal technology damage to foes every 1s for 4s and creates a 10m field that applies snare to all foes within it.
Snare: Reduces movement speed by 45%
T4: Grant yourself and Diminisher Bot a Boost: Increase maximum health by 5%
T8: Enemies are now pulled toward the Diminisher Bot when Strobe starts
Thoughts: Nothing great but nothing bad about this little guy. While he is a decent bit of dps in most builds, he will usually be the first ability to go when you need a free LAS slot. I’m not sure what his active ability is really meant for as he just seems like an all around weaker version of Arty bot, but it’s still decent aoe dps.

Shatter Impairment    Range: Self  Cost: None  Cast Time: Instant Cooldown: 30s  Type: Self   Rank: 4
Remove all CC effects and grant yourself an absorb for 10s
T4: Grant an empower: increases critical hit chance by 5% for 10s
T8: Cleanses 2 debuffs
Thoughts: Great CC break, instantly breaks you out and on top of that gives you a small absorb because generally when you get cc’d, you will also be taking damage. CC breaks have their limited uses in PvE content but it can prove to be strong in PvP content. I actually tend to not even run with a CC break in PvP most of the time as the only CC I truly find I don’t like dealing with is tether, but most classes don’t tend to run them.

Volatile Injection Range: Self  Cost: None  Cast Time: Instant Cooldown: 20s  Type: Self   Rank: 5
Generate 5 volatility per second and grant a defense and an empower to yourself for 10s.
Defense: Increases deflect critical hit chance by 10%
Empower: Increases critical hit chance by 13%
T4: Grant 1 interrupt armor
T8: On interrupt armor loss grants 100% chance to restore some shield
Thoughts: Incredible cooldown ability, only a 17s CD with CDR amps and a 10 second duration it’s up a large amount of the time and should essentially be used on cooldown. It gives both crit chance and Volatility per second I can’t find a single thing wrong with this spell. The only thing it doesn’t do is allow you to continue channeling while you use it but I think that is totally a fair trade off.

Personal Defense Unit    Range: 15m Cost: None  Cast Time: Instant Cooldown: 45s  Type: Targeted   Rank: 3
Deploy a Personal Defense Unit, lasting 30s, at the targeted location. The Personal Defense Unit grants you a defense for 5s and on expiration grants an absorb for 5s.
Defense: Decreases damage taken by 25%
T4: Personal Defense Unit will now last 60s
T8: Restores health every 1s for the duration of the buff
Thoughts: A decent defensive cooldown, especially when each tier gives an extra 5% damage reduction. Giving the damage reduction, and then the absorb afterwards is also pretty cool, but you will probably never be tiering this up past T4, maybe with elder gems but even then it will only be in special situations.

Obstruct Vision    Range: 10m Cost: None  Cast Time: Instant Cooldown: 30s  Type: Freeform   Rank: 3
Deal physical damage and blind foes,
Blind: Hinders vision and increases chance to be deflected by 25% for 6s. Destroys 1 interrupt armor.
T4: Grants 1 interrupt armor to yourself and 4 allies within 20m for 10s
T8: If the blind goes full duration the target is hit with an interrupt
Thoughts: Another decent utility skill, it gets the job done that it needs to do. In dungeons, it will only remove interrupt armor and will not actually interrupt a target. So make sure you are one of the first ones to go when you use it. It can also be comboed together with T4 Zap to interrupt a 2 IA mob. It is also really strong in PvP as Blinds can be annoying on top of it comboing with T8 Electrocute.

Repair Bot    Range: Self Cost: None  Cast Time: Instant Cooldown: 15s  Type:    Rank: 3
Create a repair bot that deals technology damage to 1 foe and restores shield to you every 3s. While active, you gain access to shield boost.
Shield Boost: Command the Repair Bot to return to you and restores shield to 5 allies within 10m every 1s for 4s.
T4: Grants yourself and repair bot increased shield mitigation by 15%
T8: Shield boost grants a defense: increases technology and magic resistance by 17%
Thoughts: As a dps engineer, you will probably never take this skill. It’s ok as a skill, but you aren’t going to be dumping enough points into the utility tree to make it worth going after.

5. LAS/Builds

In WildStar, your character is able to choose 8 of their class specific abilities to have on their action bar at a time. This system is known as a Limited Action Set or LAS, sometimes referred to as your loadout or action bar.  You are not limited in any way as to which abilities you choose to put on your action bar, but some combination of abilities are much more effective than others. Once you reach level 50 you are will begin to earn Elder Gems that can be spent to acquire an additional 10 amp points and 7 skill tier points. As of now, these will most likely be a top priority of buying them before some of the gear. Prices still may change so I will keep this updated. When you see a build mark W/EG, this is the final build with full Elder Gem points including all Tier and Amp points. I am not going to bother listing a build for every single bonus Ability or Amp so feel free to ask any specific questions at the end of the guide. Here I will list some of the more common loadouts and which situations they are best in.

5.0.1 Amp Locations

If you can’t find an amp listed here, it is most likely a random world drop, or will be added to vendors later on. You can find the Engineer ones below or all of the here: https://docs.google….many=true#gid=0

E CELESTION: SYLVAN GLADE; Melri Gladewalker
D ELLEVAR: LIGHTREACH MISSION; Lady Saphis
Reckless Dash
Helpin’ Hand

E ALGOROC: GALLOW; Merchant Clara Clearfield
D DERADUNE: BLOODFIRE VILLAGE; Mika
Harmful Hits
Helpin’ Hand

E GALERAS: SKYWATCH; Provisions Officer Windfree
D AURORIA: HYCREST; Merchant Voxic
Self-Destruct
Rejuvenating
Deft Resoration

E WHITEVALE: THERMOCK HOLD; Fenan Sunstrider
D WHITEVALE: PALEROCK POST; Zephix
Shrapnel Rounds
Survival Instincts
Keep it Moving

E FARSIDE: Walker’s Landing; Reya Resinbough
D FARSIDE: Dakahari;
Hardened Resolve
Keep on Truckin’
Extra Hurtin’
Quick Restart
Blast Back

E Wilderrun: Fool’s Hope; Merchant Snowglimmer
D Wilderrun: Provisioner Jazira
Exploit Weakness
Bust and Move
Try and Hurt Me
Repeat Business
Can’t Touch his
Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’
Reflexive Actions
Keep up the Pace

E THAYD; Supply Officer Clayre
D LLIUM; Supply Officer Phenoxia
No Pain, No Pain
Volatile Armor
Dirty Tricks
Defensive Protoccol
Explosive Ammo
Disciplined Soldier
Protection by Deflection
Razor’s Edge
Unstable Volatility
Hamstring Tear
Turn the Tables

Quest rewards: Volatility Rising, Enmity, Reroute Power

Exile
CELESTION: Gienview’s Bulkwark; Greenbough’s Guardian Quest Line
Starts at Arwick Redleaf
1) Reclaiming Greenbough
2) A Fiery Escape
3) Greenbough Guardian (AMP reward)

ALGOROC: Tremor Ridge; Loftite Rush Quest Line
Starts at Pappy Grizzleston
1) The Loftite Hunt Begins
2) Troublesome Tremors (AMP Reward)

Dominion
DERADUNE: MOODIES! Quest Line
Starts at
1) Mojo Moodies
2) Tamolo’s Necromojo
3) The Staff and the Shaman (AMP Reward)

ELLEVAR: quest line with the Stormseekers:

The final quest “Unfortunate Force” given by Guardian Zelcon

5.1 PvE

One of the awesome things about the Engineer is the sheer versatility and the amount of viable builds available to them. I know there are tons of different builds out there and just because you don’t see your exact one here does not mean it isn’t good, I just chose to list some of the higher performance builds. The general idea of the builds is: Electrocute builds are for AOE or Cleave any time you can hit more than one target at a time. Bolt Caster is for single target only. There are two abilities that can also be found in builds that I don’t include, those are: Pulse Blast and Energy Auger. I have done extensive testing with both of these and I am continuing to work and test with them to find an optimal setup with them but so far my highest parses have been without either of them. If you want to include them, you should not use PB without T8 and EA without at least T4, and you could either add it in with Bio Shell or swap Bio Shell out for them. The other thing to note is that I chose both Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’ and Forceful Impact. These amps are kind of a little tricky and in some situations you might want to avoid the strikethrough amps but to keep it simple for now just take them until I calculate the breakpoints for what you want strikethrough to be at for the highest dps gain versus the buffs. These will obviously be strong at low gear levels and begin to lose their value as you get more strikethrough and more Elder Gems. If you can avoid strikethrough on gear these should still win out in terms of dps, but there will probably be a point where simply taking the strikethrough and dropping those two amps will be a dps gain.

Solo/Questing

You could adjust the Dungeon/Raid amps for a little bit better output while solo leveling, but with only two action sets and amp refunds costing 50g, it is probably just best to roll with that build and adjust any skills as you see fit. I just threw Bruiser Bot in there because I like him but you can definitely swap it out for anything else you want. You have a few choices to generate volatility between EA, BS, and dodge rolls. Opening with either double dodge roll or EA into a BS is a good opening.

http://ws-base.com/b…425.426.427.428

Veteran Dungeons and Adventures

For the most part, you will be sticking to the Electrocute build for the trash and a good majority of the bosses, but if you want to you can flip back and forth between a BC and Electrocute spec for single target fights, but it is definitely not necessary and you can just stick to Electrocute. One thing to remember is Obstruct Vision will only remove IA and won’t interrupt the mob so make sure you are one of the first interrupts. T4 Zap is also really strong especially combined with OV you can easily handle any mob with 2 IA by yourself.

Electrocute (Multi Target): http://www.ws-base.c…527.528.529.616

Bolt Caster (Single Target): http://ws-base.com/b…426.427.428.587

Raids

Most of the time in raids you will be 100% focused on DPS and will only need maybe 1-2 slots for any utility or defensive cooldowns. Some fights might require an interrupt where others you may need to take a personal defensive cooldown. Any fight with a specific ability needed will be listed in that part of that bosses section. There are a couple other skills and tiers I am looking into but they probably won’t be viable until we get more elder gems. So for now, you can just stick in whatever you like in any empty spots you see, personally I like Urgent Withdrawal or Personal Defense Unit.

Electrocute (Multi Target): http://ws-base.com/b…425.426.427.428

Bolt Caster (Single Target): http://ws-base.com/b…426.427.428.587

5.1.1 The Rotation

In both the Electrocute and Bolt Caster builds the general idea is to spam those spells as much as you can. Aside from Volatility Rising and your innate, you have two main abilities to supplement your intended spamming, those are: Bio Shell T4 and Reckless Dash. You can also incorporate Energy Auger but from the testing I have done it has shown to be a dps loss even in a stand still scenario where every tick hits, and on a lot of fights, there is a good chance you won’t get all the ticks off. Target Acquisition can also be swapped in as well but I don’t think the damage makes up for the extra work you have to put in to make sure you get the full damage out of the skill, and in a raid scenario there’s a good chance you won’t easily get the full amount of ticks off while using it on cooldown. Another skill you can choose is Pulse Blast, usually for the T8. I’ve tried many times to get this to work in a build but always seem to find that the buff has too short of a duration, PB doesn’t hit very hard, and it’s just another skill in your rotation to manage. You are more than welcome to try out any of these in a build but I haven’t found them to be the best sources of damage. So when looking at either build you sort of have three categories of your skills:

Spender: Electrocute, Bolt Caster, or Mortar Strike

Builder: Volatility Rising/Reckless Dash, Bio Shell, Energy Auger, Target Acquisition, Pulse Blast

Cooldowns: Quick Burst, Arty: Barrage, Dbot: Strobe, Volatile Injection

Normally you will choose one spender, one to maybe two builders excluding Volatility Rising and Reckless Dash since they will always be in your build, and all of the cooldowns except in situations where you need to drop Diminisher Bot for other utility or defensive cooldowns. For all my builds I prefer T4 Bio Shell over EA and TA, but you can run both T4 Bio and EA in the same build if you choose to, but from my testing it is a dps loss. Taking the two builds that I linked in the raid section, we can break them down and see exactly how they should play out.

Electrocute (Multi Target)

Opener: Double dodge roll into instant cast Bio Shell followed by Electrocute and immediately popping your Innate and Gadget.

Once your Innate runs out, you want to look to Bio Shell anywhere from 50-60 Volatility whenever you can. This assure you will get the instant cast and not have any server delay when dipping below 70 Volatility. You also don’t want to wait until you are low on Volatility to use it, because you want to maintain the Bio Shell debuff at all times, so look to use it as soon as it comes off of cooldown. While BS is on cooldown, you will be using your dodge rolls to keep your volatility up. I like to keep them spread and use one anywhere from 50-70 Volatility to make sure I stay either inside, or above the 30-70 range. Using your first dodge roll charge earlier also allows them to begin regenerating faster, allowing for more rolls. Other than that, you want to use Quick Burst, Barrage, and Volatile Injection on cooldown to take full advantage of them. Of course as always, if you know an add phase is coming up, make sure to save your cooldowns for them. Strobe is also something you can use on cooldown, but will only be a slight damage increase on single target, unless you are hitting multiple mobs which will be much better.

Bolt Caster (Single Target)

Opener: Double dodge roll into instant cast Bio Shell followed by Innate and gadget into Bolt Caster Spam.

Once your innate runs out, you want to use Bio Shell on cooldown as long as you are between 30 and 70 Volatility. You should be able to get anywhere from 2-3 Bolt Casters in before the next Bio Shell depending on movement and boss mechanics. You won’t need to dodge roll very often if you are using Bio Shell correctly, but remember it is there in case something goes wrong and you dip below 30. That’s basically the entire build while always using Quick Burst, Barrage and Volatile Injection on cooldown. If you really want to go all out and feel you have a good control over the build, you can add in Urgent Withdrawal and use it on cooldown, but the trick is, you use both charges immediately after a Bolt Caster, while the GCD of BC recharges, you use both off GCD charges, and with it being base tier, you don’t get knocked back as far and can essentially stand in place.

5.1.2 Genetic Archives

This section contains each boss in the 20 man raid Genetic Archives and the most optimal build and tips for them. Most mini bosses don’t require a specific LAS but I will update this section with any tips, skills, and videos that may be useful. For the most part, the core abilities will always be the same and you will just cycle a few of your abilities for any cc, cc break, or defensive skills you may need. Amps should not ever change either but I will make a note if they do.

Experiment X-89

Build: http://ws-base.com/b…426.427.428.587

Video:

• Most people think they need to use their movement cooldown on every knock back but that isn’t the case. Whenever you get knocked back, sprint towards the boss right before he does it and continue to hold down sprint until you reach the peak and start falling back down, then you can let go and continue dpsing again.
• You should save Urgent Withdrawal for when you have to run a little bomb out and then the knockback happens at the same time. You will probably have to use both charges to be safe and the next knock back won’t happen until both charges are back up anyway so you will be safe.
• Being completely mobile ranged allows you to position yourself to be in a good spot to run if you get either bomb while also allowing you to position yourself near melee to continue to receive their buffs, so make sure you position correctly.
• Obviously don’t use Urgent Withdrawal as a dps increase unless you are a pro when it comes to small bomb and knock back and you have giant balls of steel.
• You’ll have to keep an eye on your bots as they seem to have a lot of trouble on this fight and you might be having to resummons them fairly often.
• You have one free LAS spot for anything you feel you need. I generally just throw Zap in there and toss it on cooldown for extra damage

Kuralak the Defiler

Build: http://ws-base.com/b…426.427.428.587

Video:

• Zap is your best interrupt both pillar duty and egg duty, but obviously make sure you don’t hit more than one egg when they are up as it has a decent size range.
• You can get away with using UW on cooldown for a dps increase but you need to be really careful in the first phase and I don’t recommend it unless you really know the fight and know what you are doing.
• Outbreak should no longer kill pets so you can leave them in the middle to continue dpsing and not have to pull them out.
• You might have to be a little careful with your dodge rolls here as you still need to dodge the puddles and also not dodge roll into someone else’s, but BC allows for no self snare while moving so you should be fine side stepping them.

Phagetech Prototypes

Build: http://ws-base.com/b…425.426.427.428

Video:

• Electrocute will easily be king here with the amount of cleaving you can do.
• Zap is there if you are on interrupt duty, and for the Repair Bots to help control them.
• Electrocute should be just long enough for you to reach the Singularity so be careful about getting pulled in if you are outside trying to dps it.
• Personal Defense Unit is there for any sticky situation you find yourself in. A good one is anytime you get pulled into Singularity, toss it up to help mitigate the damage you take, or any other time you find yourself low and a lot of stuff happening, a general defensive cooldown.

Phage Maw

Build: http://ws-base.com/b…426.427.428.587

Video:

• Recursive Matrix T4 is used right before air phase to help mitigate a little bit of the bombs but it is only a small absorb and you might not find it worth it. Just take the points out of it and put them in the usual spots.
• Even though you can cleave the bombs and Phage Maw sometimes, Bolt Caster is still a higher dps choice as a high majority of the fight will be spent on single target. You also won’t be able to hit all 5 bolts on bombs that immediately spawn and you won’t be able to until they grow bigger. You will still have to kill some when they just spawned so if they are close to Phage Maw, make sure the missed bolts on the bomb are hitting the boss.
• During air phase, if you somehow dipped below 30 Volatility, make sure you dodge roll back up to 100 before the phase is over.
• Sometimes whenever Phage Maw crashes down, he will kill your bots. So just make sure you don’t summon them until immediately after he comes down. This also means that during air phase, you should just desummon your bots and wait to resummons them until after he comes back down just to be safe and avoid the cooldown on them while the MOO is up.

Phageborn Convergence

Build: http://ws-base.com/b…426.427.428.587

Video:

• Depending on the boss set up for the week, you may need T4 Zap to handle the interrupt phase easier. You can also keep Zap, and drop UW and pick up your cc break if the tether is not getting cleaved down, but ideally it should be and you can take UW for a dps increase.
• Even though you might need aoe at some point during the fight, I still choose to use Bolt Caster because all of the important damage will be single target. During the add phase where they are all spread out, you won’t be able to hit one target with all 5 bolts, so make sure you line yourself up so the missed bolts hit another one behind it.

Ohmna

Build:

Video:

5.1.3 Datascape

This section will contain each boss in the 40 man raid Datascape and the most optimal build and tips for them. Only internal testing has been done on Datascape so this section will be updated as soon as possible.

5.2 PvP

With the lack of PvP currently at 50 I have had very minimal chances to play around with the Engineer at max level. So most of my builds will be from low level battleground experience and just what seemed to work best for me. I definitely have not PvP’d nearly enough to know what is the best or most optimal but I can give my opinions on what has worked for me.

Solo/Arenas 2s and 3s

http://ws-base.com/b…592.593.594.615

The last empty spot can have tons of abilities in it including: Unstable Anomaly, Shatter Impairment, Personal Defense Unit, or Recursive Matrix. I personally do not like bots in arena but feel free to try them out for yourself. Ability points are tough as well, you can do a lot of things such as T8 Pulse Blast, T4, T7, or T8 Unstable Anomaly, T4 Zap, T4 Volatile Injection, T4 Obstruct Vision, and a couple others. You have a lot of choices and should really choose what feels best for you and just use this build as a starting point. The amps I feel are very optimal but you might be able to find a way to rearrange them for better performance. I really feel T8 Urgent Withdrawal is very underrated and is close to a must have tier, depending on the team comps of course.

Battlegrounds

http://ws-base.com/b…529.616.417.936

This build is assuming you are pretty good with the PvE rotation and know how to keep up Volatility while still pushing out a ton of damage. Some people don’t like bots in PvP but I am mainly taking it for the T4, and you can even just put him on passive to insure he doesn’t die and you can keep the buff up.

Warplots 

http://ws-base.com/b…529.616.417.936

I have not done any Warplots yet so I will just take in my BG build for now.

5.3 Leveling

One of the best leveling classes in my opinion with pets, heavy armor, and great cleave/multi target damage. The only issue you may have is a little bit of downtime in between pulls without any decent sustain so you should look into picking up any food and/or health pots to help keep your leveling speed up.

Skills:

Pulse Blast: Great for earlier leveling as you do not have all your sources of volatility gain yet and this is a no cooldown spammable generator. Once you get to level 25 though, T4 Bio Shell will basically take the place of PB combined with either Energy Auger or Reckless Dash, you probably won’t ever need PB again. That being said, a lot of people prefer PB and you won’t be hindered in any way by taking it.

Bruiser Bot: Some people love him, some people hate him. I personally enjoy having him on my LAS while leveling and gives me time to free cast without taking any damage. He can also be used to activate MOOs as a lot of normal leveling mobs do not have interrupt armor and can be interrupted by him. Really helpful when soloing the group quests mobs. Just use Taunt on cooldown and if he dies kite around until his cooldown is back up again.

CC: Zap is a very solid cc to always have with you while leveling, but Obstruct Vision on the other hand is probably not going to be a lot of help to you as it only removes IA but doesn’t actually interrupt a target. If you ever find yourself fighting a tougher mob with 2 IA, OV combined with a T4 Zap is always really strong and can help you out with dealing with it.

Defensives: Not a lot of choices here, but Personal Defense Unit can always come in handy along with the small absorb you receive from Shatter Impairment. Diminisher Bot can be semi helpful in some situations, but I generally just stick with Arty and Bruiser.

Amps:

6-12: Put the first 3 points into crit chance, then save the next 4 for Volatility Rising. Make sure you get this amp from your starter zone quest as soon as you can get it learned, the better your leveling will be.

After this, you can honestly go in any order of amps that you want, and it will also depend on your starting zone and which ones you have access to. I would suggest filling out Crit Severity, Assault Power, and Cooldown Reduction as some of your top priorities. You should look to get Reckless Dash if you started in that zone, but if not, Shrapnel Rounds and Explosive ammo are both good choices, and then finally Harmful Hits. Forceful Impace and Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’ are both last on the priority list for amps but are still definitely worth taking when you get to them. Until you get there, the Strikethrough amps are also a solid choice for leveling.

Ability Points:

You should always be looking to fill out Electrocute to the max you can take it. Once you hit level 25, taking T4 Bio Shell and T4 Electrocute will immensely speed up the leveling process. As long as Electrocute is at max rank, you can put your points almost anywhere else like Artillery Bot, Bio Shell, Energy Auger, Volatile Injection, Bruiser Bot, Pulse Blast, or Quick Burst, anything that you use as damage is viable for ability points.

6. Stats

For leveling: Finesse will always be your biggest and best stat while leveling. Even when comparing a piece of gear that has Moxie and Brutality and a piece with just Finesse the Finesse piece will almost always be the better choice.

Level 50: Finesse still reigns supreme at max level over every other stat aside from straight Assault Power. The only other thing you should pay attention to is if you are near any milestones and whether or not you will reach them or fall below them by switching out gear. But even then, losing milestones could still better depending on how much you gain in other stats.

6.1 Runes

At level 50 when you earn a new piece of gear it will most likely contain rune slots. The different types of rune slots are: Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Life, Logic, Fusions, and Omni. You are then able to create your own runes and place them in a rune slot of the same element, while an Omni slot can hold any rune element type. Additionally, the first rune slot in your gear receives 100% of the stat, and each rune after it receives less and less of their stat. This means, if possible, you want to put your best stats in the first few slots to gain the most value out of them. Each rune element has a few different stats associated with it so naturally some elements have much better rune choices for the Engineer than some others. Listed below are the rune elements with their best stats in order of most wanted to least wanted. A lot of elements are actually pretty useful to us and can help fill out a lot of rune sets or have good stats for us.

Fire: Assault Power
Fusion: Assault Power
Air: Finesse
Logic: Crit Severity
Life: Finesse, Crit Severity
Earth: Crit Severity
Water: Finesse

Some of the best runes you can place in your gear is straight Assault Power in Fire, Fusion, and Omni slots. Like I mentioned, we can actually take advantage of every single rune slot with either our primary stat or one of our rune sets. Personally, I prefer using Crit Severity runes since we get a lot of crit already from our amps and abilities.

6.1.1 Rune Sets

Along with normal runes you are also able to obtain special rune fragments that can be used when crafting runes to make a special rune apart of a Rune Set. Theses runes have the same stats on them, but provide you with a bonus when you have a certain number of them equipped in your gear. Also, each set has three elements associated with it and you are only able to create runes of those elements for the set. Some of the best rune sets for Engineers and their elements are:

Technophile: Air, Fire, Logic
(4) Technophile: Increases Tech damage dealt by 1% and grants you a chance to apply an expose for 5.0s when you land a hit. Expose: Reduces Tech Resistance by 240.
(8) Technophile: Increases Tech damage dealt by 1.5% and grants you a chance to apply an expose for 5.0s when you land a hit. Expose: Reduces Tech Resistance by 360.
(12) Technophile: Increases Tech damage dealt by 2% and grants you a chance to apply an expose for 5.0s when you land a hit. Expose: Reduces Tech Resistance by 480.

Weapon Specialist: Earth, Logic, Fire
(4) Weapon Specialist: Increases Physical damage dealt by 1% and grants you a chance to apply an expose for 5.0s when you land a hit. Expose: Reduces Physical Resistance by 240.
(8) Weapon Specialist: Increases Physical damage dealt by 1.5% and grants you a chance to apply an expose for 5.0s when you land a hit. Expose: Reduces Physical Resistance by 360.
(12) Weapon Specialist: Increases Physical damage dealt by 2% and grants you a chance to apply an expose for 5.0s when you land a hit. Expose: Reduces Physical Resistance by 480.

Assassin: Fire, Logic, Life
(4) Assassin: Increases Assault Power by 8 and grants a 25% chance to deal an additional 20 physical damage when landing a hit on a foe below 30% health.
(8) Assassin: Increases Assault Power by 16 and grants a 25% chance to deal an additional 30 physical damage when landing a hit on a foe below 30% health..
(12) Assassin: Increases Assault Power by 32 and grants a 25% chance to deal an additional 40 physical damage when landing a hit on a foe below 30% health.

With the recent nerf and changes to rune sets, the best combination right now is simply 12/12 Weapon Spec, for Bolt Caster, or Tehnophile, for Electrocute, and 12/12 Assassin. If you don’t have enough rune slots for both then choose to fill out either Weapon Specialist or Technophile first. The ideal situation would be to have all three rune sets so that you can freely swap between specs without losing out on rune damage. You can also run two sets of gear if you really want to have both but don’t have the rune slots for it yet.

7. Raid Consumables

The three main raid consumables are: Food, Boosts, and Field Tech. The main stat you want from your Food and Boosts will be Finesse. I will update this list as I find the specific names and locations of each buff.

Food: 
Marksmen Meal – 67 Finesse, Crimson Badlands

Boosts: 
Finesse Boost – 61 Finesse, Technologists

Field Tech: 
Bioreactive Acid Membrane – Gives your abilities a chance to cleave, Technologists 3 minute duration
zerkOut Neurochems – Increases crit chance, Technologists (Currently behaving as a boost and has a 10 minute duration)

8. BIS Gear List

In this section, I will attempt to keep a list of some of the best in slot gear for the Engineer and which boss encounters or reward vendors they can be found on.

9. Advanced

So you think you are a pretty good Engineer huh? Well then, take a look at some of the more advanced techniques and see if you can master them!

Controlling your bots: Definitely go to this link and keybind the bot commands here to help control them. Call and kill command are definitely some of the best choices: WildStar Engineer Bot Keybinds and Commands

Stand still dodge roll: This actually isn’t very advanced but sometimes goes unnoticed by new players. If you are in a fight and you can find a wall or small ledge, you can put your back to it and dodge roll backwards while remaining in place but still gaining your Volatility from Reckless Dash, and not creating extra distance between you and the boss.

Using your Innate: Whenever you activate your Innate, make sure it always during a cast. The best use is activating Electrocute and popping it right before a tick so that you guarantee full procs. Using it right before Energy Auger launches or right before you use a Bolt Caster is acceptable as well. Another thing to remember that is a bigger deal in an Electrocute spec than a Bolt Caster spec is before popping your innate, make sure you drop your Volatility down to about 50 and pop Bio Shell then Electrocute into Innate and Gadget. That way you have the BS debuff up for the entire duration of your Innate as both Electrocute and your Innate procs are Technology damage.

10. Addons

Here you will find any addons specific to the Engineer that cna prove to be very helpful or make it easier to keep track of things.

Aura Mastery – My favorite addon so far for tracking buffs, debuffs, and cooldown timers.

Moveable Frames – Helps tracking other things Aura Mastery doesn’t

ProcsHud – Another choice to help monitor your procs