How can I be an effective engineer on Blu team without resorting to the Gunslinger?
Engineer is a useful class to play on Attack, with teleporters being indispensable for getting heavy-hitters onto the front line, and dispensers being...dispensable for health and ammo on the front line.
The problem is that the server I like to play on has banned the Gunslinger entirely.
I want to play Engineer on this server, but I don't have time to build up a full Sentry and still keep my teleporter and dispenser built up.
How can I support my team as Engineer on attack without resorting to the use of a Gunslinger mini-sentry?
On offense as Engineer without Gunslinger, the main goal is to set up a forward base.
- First, your team is stuck in spawn pre-round. If there's buildable area between spawn and setup gates, make sure you get your stuff built. Put down the Dispenser and Teleporter first, and you should have time to finish a level 3 Sentry before the gates open. That should at least keep the enemy team busy while you build up the other two buildings.
- Once your team is out, move up the Sentry. Put it in a place that covers the back half of your team, then move up the Dispenser.
- After capping the first point, there's generally a good spot to put the Exit. Put it there and move up the other buildings to suit.
- Defend your mini-base. Take potshots at the enemy team, but protecting the Teleporter is top priority. Always assume there's someone around the corner.
- Continue to move up to support the back half of your team. You don't usually want to get into the front half, because that's where the combat should be taking place. Once you have an Exit up, you should be advancing the Sentry first (for protecting the target area), then the Teleporter (unless a lot of people are attempting to use it at the moment), then the Dispenser.
If you want to be more aggressive with this strategy, you can move up your Sentry to the front half of the team to take an area, move up the rest of your base, and repeat. You can always just fight on the front lines yourself with your Widowmaker/Pomson/Short Circuit/what have you, but this should generally always be done to help clear the area for your buildings, because protecting the Teleporter is top priority.
From my experience in the Engineer Class I always like to first(even without gunslinger):
Choose your inventory right before round start. I dont use gunslinger a lot so I always use the jag as an offensive engineer, because you build faster that other wrenches. Choose a good prime weapon and always be around a pyro (for obvious reasons)
Check if there's a area you can pre-build before round starts. If not think right about your inventory.
As soon as round starts build a dispenser. Why is that ? You wont need to be running arount for metal scraps, as you have that.
Build a sentry and upgrade it to max level. Be sure to have a dispenser near, and put it in a good spot, where it can't be seen and sniped at.
Build an entry to the near of your base and the end portal to a flank near the hot spot action ( where your units can flank the opposite team gathered in that spot). If you dont want that, you can always build a teleport from the place you want to place your sentry to the warehouse (where you start). However the last one is more advisable if your team has a weak offense and you need to escape the hot zone.
Check your constructions often, and when attacking I dont recommend being alone ( usually go with demo, pyro or heavy), as Engineer is a support class.
Don't go too far in the offensive line, except when your team if pwning the other team.
Reallocate your construction accordingly to the dynamics of offensive/defensive. What I mean is to be careful where you put your constructions, and reallocate them if you need more attack in one, or if you need to get more people to defend or something like that.
That's all !