holy shit i didnt know that you had to be standing on top of or behind the cart in order to receive ammo from the payload. this video changes everything. thank you uncle dank
Mc Mrmot Because people would utilize the push force of the cart whilst revved up as Heavy. Since staying on top of the cart makes you a target and being on the ground means you have to walk, standing in front would be too easy. That, and if you look at the design of the cart, it's essentially a dispenser in the back and a bomb in the front. I mean, you wouldn't try to get ammunition directly from a warhead in real life, would you?
Once I was playing engi on defence and I kept spamming the help button in hope that another person would go engi and help me upgrade but my team just all went up to me and suicided in front of me to help me
Hey everyone, I know it's been a long time since I made one of these, but I thought about it a few weeks ago and I said to myself, "Engineering 101 was really good idea. Why don't I keep making those?" The answer was, "Because you forgot, you dink." So hopefully I will actually make more of these without a three month gap in between. ALSO: If you liked that sequence at the end with the really kawaii animation, check out CuteC3's channel! She makes a ton of awesome animations about TF2 and cute things in general (hence the name).
Uncle Dane I was wondering, how do you priorities buildings? For example, on KOFH maps, I tend to forget about teleporters, go mini sentries and place dispensers at a fall back place near the point, but not right next to it (Learned the hard way why). But, I know that on different game modes, and even if your just on offense compared to defense priority to certain buildings can change, so could you do a video on priority on buildings?
Uncle Dane Check out teamplayfirst.com/ ! It's a group dedicated to teamplay, sportsman(n)ship, and honesty that WILL switch to engie to upgrade your teleporter, among other things.
Do you think maybe you can make a video on what secondaries you can use since a few got changed? If that idea sounds short you could always add the same with primaries in situations.
I don't even play engie that much (I main demo and soldier) but this was fascinating. Seeing you get all your buildings set up and level 3 before the gates even opened without wasting much metal was amazing. You worked that shit like a pro. I have new respect for good engies.
Honestly, I am surprised more people don't upgrade teles when they respawn. If I see a level one tele at spawn, I will switch to engie, upgrade it, then go back to scout and run my ass to the front lines. I never even use teh thing, but I know the team needs it.
Bobby ferg here's the thing, an annoying scout is a good one. He's taking your attention from the main objective, allowing his team to hold/cap it easier. So the more attention he draws, even without killing or doing any damage, the more effective he is.
You said you put down the sentry first because it's the fastest self-building building, but I always put down the dispenser because it's slower, that way they'll finish building at around the same time. Is the reason behind putting the sentry down first that you won't have enough time to get it to level 3 otherwise?
Grizzly Berry I suppose it's so you can spend more time placing other buildings and get back to a self-constructed Sentry so you don't have to spend time hammering away at your sentry when you could be doing other things.
Could you do a video on how to find smart build spots? I'm still a bad engi, but I wanna get good enough to be a successful engi main. HALP ME ENGI SENPAI!
Soundwave567 A very good TF2 player, and one of Uncle Dane's favorites, covered a "TF2 - Best Sentry Spots" video. You should check it out by TwilightVomit.
The little "Upgrade Your Bros Teles" animation was beautiful and sent me off the wall with laughter! Thankfully I and most Engineers I play with are guilty of upgrading each others' Teleports. For the next one, why not do "When it is Appropriate to Save Your Buildings and When to Abandon Them"??? I see lots of Engineer bros get killed trying to maintain a Sentry Spot and dying instead of abandoning the nest, rebuilding somewhere else close by, and moving the gear up. Dying as Engineer is almost as bad as dying as Medic because the team loses a TON of momentum, both offensively and defensively (I consider Engi the 2nd most important player to kill), and I feel that most aspiring Engineers should know when to pull out and regroup and when to stay in the fray.
StarTard's YT Hub I Second this suggestion! When a spy saps my nest, I save my dispenser FIRST. I can quickly rebuild my sentry next to my dispenser, but if my dispenser is gone, I have to run around getting metal and rebuilding. Second, I go after the spy. Most spies think as long as your stuff is sapped, they are "safe" and will just keep spamming your buildings with sappers. I go straight at them. A little southern hospitality keeps them bleeding so my team mates can find them, or they die before they find a med pack. Next is my SG, because if I can back off the spy, unsap the sentry, it will some time get them as their cloak wears off. Last is my tele, unless it is deep in a CP map and my Tele is vital to team momentum. Then I might try to save the tele. Similarly, if an Uber-invincibility is coming in, and I know I can't save my SG, I'll might take out my wrench and go at the medic until his Uber ends. They sometimes don't expect that, and usually the other guy is busy trying to take out my SG. Hopefully my dispenser is around the corner, safe for now. I rarely try to spam/heal my disp during an Uber assult. Hiding is usually prudent at this point.
John Lampe When they pop Uber, I RUN. Doesn't matter the circumstance, I know my stuff (all of it) is gonna go. I relocate somewhere else that's just as good but VERY close by and rebuild. As for Spies, I save the SENTRY first. Most Spies make the mistake of sapping the SG THEN killing the Engineer, so I remove the sapper whilst killing the Spy anyway (cause if he tries to stab me, he dies painfully). That way, if I die, the Sentry can stay and slow the other team down. Even if it dies, it's still doing its job. If I die and the SG lives, that's a plus even if the gun eventually goes too. I don't often chase Spies, usually because they lead me into un-winnable scenarios; instead I focus on maintaining the nest and waiting for the Spy to make a second shot (as all Spies inevitably do) so I can kill him then. I place the SG at a higher priority than my Dispenser in high-threat situations because whilst the Dispenser saves lives, the SG provides fire so my team can either keep pushing or retreat. If the Dispenser goes down instead of the SG, I can just put out another Dispenser with the leftover gibs with little cost to team momentum (and I save metal in the process). I also make sure to put my Dispenser at a fallback location instead of close to the SG, as Spies usually go for the gun first thus diverting attention away from my team (that also allows me to focus ALL attention on maintaining the SG instead of an entire nest).
All good points. And it sounds like you are playing more of a support the offense role. If that is the case, then i agree. The SG is force protection/area denial and is mission vital. I play a lot of "2Fort Turtle" myself these days. So generally speaking, my SG isn't mission critical. As long as the base isn't infiltrated (which is why I tend to chase to track down the spy or whatever.) Usually I have a pyro, huntsman sniper, or another player to help take him out while I rebuild. I can rebuild quicker with a dispenser and be back up before they respawn and return.
John Lampe My absolute FAVORITE way to Engineer is actually "all out offense": Jag, the Frontier Justice, and the Wrangler. With Wrangler, I can Sentry Jump to annoying places, FJ crits are GREAT fun, and the Jag builds INSANELY fast. It also helps to quickly put up Teleports. On Defense, though, I swap to Rescue Ranger, Wrangler, Carbon BK Wrench. Ranger on defense is obvious, and the Wrench 2-hits even cloaked Spies, unlike the Jag. I use the SG as essentially another team member in both roles, though.
Can you talk about building rotation? If I had a nickel for every time I could have saved a control point if the engineer hadn't placed his teleporter exit so that I come out FACING THE WALL.
This is something that I've always subconsciously done to the best of my ability, but it's nice to be given a little bit of confirmation and clearer descriptions from The Uncle himself. I'm probably above the target skill level for Engineering 101, but as a 100% Pub Engie Main these tips are a nice reinforcement, and if nothing else hopefully will reach those that need it more. A suggestion for a future episode is Cooperative Engineering- mainstay being not to put a second sentry down directly adjacent to another, but also perhaps some advanced tips like dispenser (not)-blocking, and... well, anything you can think of is probably better than mine. Keep it up, Dane!
Pros: CuteC3's animation = Perfection Awesome advice Nice intro Cons: 116 is not an odd number Widowmaker can also generate ammo Keep up the good work. Ignore the NSFW name.
Engineering 101. An extremely rare species of Dane's videos. Some say that this species went extinct. The sudden appearance of one has brought researchers from across the globe, and from multiple high-end laboratories to the videos section just to catch a glimpse or even to see so much as a foot print.
"While you still have buildings to upgrade, never pick up an ammo pack that is greater than the amount of metal that you currently have." Shouldn't that be "greater than the amount of metal that you currently lack"? If you have 40 metal, you're not limited to ammo pickups of 40 metal or less; rather, you are limited to ammo pickups of 160 or less.
Did my dear Uncle just pass up a chance to talk about his favorite shotgun?? Using the Rescue Ranger to heal damage and conserving metal that way seemed like a perfect tip for this video and I was expecting it from the moment I clicked.
Turtles Tortellini That was in the original draft, but I thought it complicated things a bit. Trying to keep this series as simple as I can. That IS a really great tactic though, especially when used alongside the Jag with it's lower repair amount.
at 5:28-5:56, it is really helpful TF2 even encourages it with an Achievement, the "Silent Partner" where you help upgrade a friendly engie's building, and "Land Grab", where you help a teammate *construct* his/her building
I sometimes use ammopacks to catch spys. When i see a spy cloacking then i grab the nearest ammo pack. That limits the area he could end cloacking at. Anyone else do this?
HellHound The question is: How useful is it now after the dr nerf, since you'll be mostly dealing with dr spies when you're head-on attacking them, since they are usually more aggressive. They can't pick up ammo anymore whilst cloaked with the dr, so I think they'll just run away with their 3s speed boost.
HellHound When a DR spy is really pissing me off (which is almost always) I used to go put a teleporter right on the metal so he can't reach it. Highlight of my day is when my spy/friend chats "Not cool, Havoc". I haven't done it for a while, so I don't know if it still works after the update.
I discovered your Channel about 4-5 months ago, somehow since then Engineer has gone from my 6th most played class to my 2nd. You're my favourite Uncle
on a match of pl_upward and I was watching this I saw a friendly engineer's teleporter and i went engineer and built his teleporter up after that part of helping your engineer's teleporters and I felt better about myself and helping that guy. thanks Uncle Dane!
That animation at the end was really cute. Not to mention, the part where Dane rambles on about when to build this and that on Dustbowl, really amazed me. Keep up the gods work Dane!
You know you're doing a good job when you're making other class mains want to Engineer main. Thanks for the high-quality tutorial. (The accent was so _not_ stupid. Loved that part.)
As an aspiring Engi main myself, I personally like using the stock Shotgun, but I've seen a lot of better Engineers using the Rescue Ranger or the Frontier Justice more often. Is there a definitive Shotgun I should pair with my Pistol/Jag, or is it just preference and I haven't been experimenting enough with the other two?
SmashRiver64 Essentially the rescue ranger is a tool which sacrifices some offensive potential for defense. Or you could see the other two as doing the opposite, the Frontier justice an even more extreme offensive weapon. Frontier Justice crits are great for surprise picks in Highlander. I tend to use stock only if i'm going to be cart pushing a lot.
SmashRiver64 It's hard to say it all in one comment, but each shotgun is very balanced (except for maybe the Pomson being crap). Each one benefits a specific playstyle. The Shotgun is the best for all around personal defense and offense. The Widowmaker is pretty much pure offense and the Frontier Justice is pretty much pure defense (with an occasional offensive streak). The Rescue Ranger is more of a tool than a weapon; for strengthening your buildings over your own personal damage output. I guess it all comes down to what kind of Engineer you feel like playing at the time. They all have their own specific purposes.
"In order to get metal you should be standing behind or on top the cart" Well that changed so much from me and gave the logic of Pushing the cart and not Pulling it XD (I always stand infront of it XD)
The quality of the video is amazing! I mostly play on a server where sentries are disabled, but I convinced the server owner to try find a plugin that makes sentries wrangle only!
So, after your brief explaination, I found that while you're upgrading your Tele in the corner part, you choose to use the small ammo packs instead of thr full ones. Why is that? Did you made an mistake or something? On that note, I actually found this video pretty useful. Although I don't main as engie, I could use other classes to outsmart the engies.
_The Sigafoo save gave me the confidence to start playing Engineer reguarly._ Now that it's gone, it may seem that Engies everywhere are at a disadvantage. But none of us don't need that crutch anymore; we're ready to discover something new to give us hope: _ourselves._ >eagle cry in the distance
UNCLE!! 1. Is there some new sigafoo save? How do YOU deal with uber after the update? 2. Is the jag the new meta? I'm trying to find an excuse to use my aussie wrench though :(. 3. How do you feel on the mini. I feel it's been too nerfed.
Teanu Tamayo I'd probably just wrangler jump away-rescue range the sentry to a new spot. If you can wrangle a rocket at either the medic or the uber target's feet to blast them away, that can be an alternative. New Jag is god. Lv. 1s with Jag is new mini. Plus you have the option to make go big with a lv 3 if you get the chance. Try it with default or Frontier justice. The most annoying thing for me is that minis suited the widowmaker since they cost less metal, so I'm less inclined to use the widowmaker now :(
Teanu Tamayo TEANU!! 1. The Sigafoo Save still works, it's just not as good at completely negating an assault anymore. All it really does is simply delay your gun going down, while you run away. I still use the Wrangler + RR combo for preventing damage against one enemy while he gets spammed out by my team. But it's not that great for full-on tanking anymore. I recently have been using the newly lowered ammo cost for teleporting buildings for a version of "saving" the gun. If you can get a medic to flash you with a counter-popped uber, this is the most reliable way to keep your gun from dying in an Uber push. 2. The Jag is very good. Really really good. It's not necessarily the new meta, but more along the lines of a very powerful option for aggressive Engineering as well as just being fast at everything you need to do. Team being rolled? Need to get a defense up quickly? Use the Jag. Want to be a more tanky Battle Engie, trading less personal health for more sentry DPS? Use the Jag. Want to just be fast at upgrading, constructing and removing sappers (and who wouldn't want that?) Use the Jag. Yeah. It's really good. It's really hard to justify using it over the Stock for most situations. 3. I think its nerf was perfect. The thing was a crutch for bad Engineers because it allowed them to abuse it's "spammability" without having to do much else. Now it's much harder to play that way and be successful, which is a good thing in my opinion. And because the Jag is much more viable for battle Engineer now, I'd say it's a fair trade off by a long shot.
Uncle Dane jag needs longer switch time, to make RR/wrangler less viable with it, giving a reason for stock. right it's only true downside is that you go through metal faster...
The dispenser *generates* 40-60 metal per 5 seconds based on it's level. It *dispenses* 40-60 metal per second from it's metal reserves based on it's level. A payload cart has infinite metal from it's reserves (that's probably why in Highlander matches you see the attacking Engineer hugging the cart).
At 1:56 in your Jag vs The World video I noticed you upgraded a sentry to level 2 when you could have upgraded it to level 3 easily. Then you moved it to the front line and wrangled. Does the faster build speed on a level 2 outweigh the superior health and damage on a level three in an area as chaotic as the front?
OrphanCripple Well, level 3's being wrangled means primarily bullet damage. Aiming where someone is with a rocket means you'll most likely miss. The superior health means nothing in a situation like that.
OrphanCripple Yup, build speed is very important if you want to play engineer aggressively. The main reason why he upgrades to level 2 is that the damage increase is huge from level 1 to level 2 than level 2 to level 3. So less metal and less time spent on upgrading to level 3 and deploying it means better aggressiveness
OrphanCripple Aggreed. And if you are aggressively moving up, letting it rebuild just to level 2 gets it up and firing quicker, and a full load of metal will get it to level 3 almost as fast as it would rebuild, but it's providing its own covering fire while you are upgrading.
A bit off topic, but if I end up beginning to play TF2, what would be a good class to start with? Would Engineer be good, or would something like Heavy or Scout be better for getting used to the controls so I can ultimately find the class I work with best?
Travis Lacy Soldier is the best to start off with. Play with him until you get the basics then move on to pyro or heavy. Engie can be a lil' complicated for new players and definitely don't start off with spy. He is probably the hardest class to play and you will die alot.
Travis Lacy I'd say Soldier, he's a pretty straightforward class who's easy to succeed with, but has things that make him hard to master. He has a good amount of health, the rockets have a huge splash radius, while slow, his move speed is pretty average, also a great Medic buddy, just a great starter class. Oh, here's a few tips with Soldier too. If you're starting off, the rockets have a strange move speed that may take a while to get used to, if you have trouble aiming to get direct hits, try aiming anywhere near the enemy's feet and they will get caught in the splash. Try to have the high ground, especially against other Soldiers. You'll be able to use splash against them, and they'll have to hit you directly. Also, if you want to attempt a rocket jump, make sure that before firing the rocket at your feet, jump, and crouch mid-air to get much higher than normal. Engineer is good if you suck at aiming (like me) and can have your Sentry handle most fights, but he's a much deeper class and if I were to give pointers on him, you'd probably get bored of reading the essay that I would present you with.
Another great video Dane. It's good to see the return of the series. Although I did know most of what was in this video. It was specific, and detailed. And great for at the absolute least clarification
guli ❤ True - unless it's a level three teleporter and there's no one else waiting to use it. If so, please use it - even Scouts. Lvl 3 teles recharge quick enough.
Ever met a scout one fired one shot from his scattergun than picks up the full ammo pack while you are upgrading your sentry than proceeding to taunt you? have ya pal?
The way that final hand-drawn sequence goes makes me think it'd be funny if other classes' melees helped speed up the upgrade animation. Wonder if there's a custom server out there that gives all classes a metal stock.
LOL 60 METAL PER SECOND I WISH m8 get ur engineering str8 lvl 1 = 40 every 5 seconds lvl 2 = 50 every 5 seconds lvl 3 = 60 every 5 seconds i know you know this but i am going to point this out
I will admit, after watching this the first time, I have since took the advice of "change to engie real quick to upgrade your team's engie's teleporter at spawn from level 1 to 3." to heart. I do it anytime I see a level 1 teleporter at spawn, and I do thank you uncle dane for letting me know to do that. I know Engie is a hard class to learn and play sometimes, so I will do whatever I can to help out my fellow engies out even a little so they can do their job better
Uncle Dane, thank you for providing people such good engineering tips. Not if that I will ever use them, 'cause I'm Scout main. Woo-hoo to you for saying Non-medic/Engineer mains to help fellow Engiemates upgrading their Teleport entrances during setup time. I've been doing that for a year now, finally some RU-vid TFer helped very least of us spread the word of Team Play.
Thanks for being such a bro, Dane. I was starting to lose interest in playing engie recently, but your vids have inspired me to pick up the wrench once again.
Hey Uncle! Great video, I think it'll help a lot of people that are new to Engi. I was looking at this video thinking it would be really advanced and hard to follow but it turn out that you just reassured me that I'm on the right track as far as how I use metal and play engi.
as an engie main, I knew a lot of this, but it's neat to know tha someone else knows how to do this as well. to often, we get poor engies that have no idea what to do and look at you stupidly when you get ther builds upgraded. that is also something to note, spend metal on your buildings first. thanks though, nice vid! approved!
Heh, I remember when siN showed that 'PSA' announcement on his channel. It was glorious playing engie for a while after that, because 90% of the time someone would upgrade your teleporters for you.
I ran into a bad pair of engineers in the basement of Teufort. They were building dispensers and sentries and when I needed metal, they would PACK UP THEIR DISPENSERS AND TELL ME IN THE CHAT: "Get your own f**king metal." Way to be a cooperative engineer. Both of you. I really appreciate the TEAM effort. We're on the same side. I died and respawned as Demo to try to detonate their buildings, but UNFORTUNATELY that doesn't work, and I ended up getting myself killed a lot.
every time i watch your videos, it makes me want to play engi. He's not my favotrite class, but you always show that there is fun to be had with the engi.
Pretty glad I found your channel, Dane. I'm not particularly good at TF2, and I mostly roll Medic, but I love playing as Engie, and these Engineer 101 videos are a tremendous help. Thanks, man.
Another great engineering video. this is my main problem i have when playing engineer it's what i should spend it on and when. Thanks Uncle Dane. Also brilliant animation CuteC3
Whenever you pick up a fallen players ammo pack, you always get metal equal to the amount of metal that player had on death, it's just that every class other than engineer has 100 metal on them that they can't use for anything
If no-one helps you upgrade your teleporter during setup, it's generally fine to upgrade it last, since by the time your teammates start dying then respawning, you'll probably have it at level 2 or 3 already.
Another note is that ammo packs respawn every 10 seconds. To keep track of when it will next respawn you can usually use the round timer at the top of the screen.
specifically you need to be standing on the top near the back to recieve the metal, its the chimney part that kind of serves as the lvl 1 disp., this is useful for playing the on rails heavy using the hulong heater to mow everything down
Great video about metal spending/conservation! One little thing I do like to do on offense in maps with a pre-round build area is level my sentry to 195/200. (This can be accomplished by simply spending the 70 metal left over from your 200 reserve after dropping the sentry) It's very useful since it only requires 5 metal to upgrade to level 3.
I love how I can go to certain channels for different class tips. Like when I'm done with this and need some medic tips I can go to mr paladin and spy I can head over to array sevens channel and here we can enjoy a decent medic gameplay
Wow, this is something I've actually kind of subconsciously done but never really thought about. I always try to deplete my metal to zero before picking up max ammo packs, but never really thought about it. Learned a lot from this, it seems like for an aspiring Engie main it would probably be a decent idea to go to common maps in offline mode and try to figure out the quickest way to get set up based on the ammo sources you have. I never thought of doing that, the only map I really know how to set up on well is Pipeline. Awesome video as always Uncle! :D PS I wish more people would switch class just to upgrade teleporters quickly in setup. My friends tell me I'm one of the only people they know who value teleporters so highly, but hey, can't fight the good fight if you can't get to the fight while there's still a fight being fought.
Here's a legitimate strategy I use on 2fort: the second a round starts head to the bottom entrance to your base and build a sentry directly in the cross section where the sewer entrance and the large doors all meet. Place your dispenser on the wall opposite to the sewer entrance to keep demo spam from destroying your support. By this time, the 24/7 scout capers, hoping they didn't take the upper route, will have died to your sentry, allowing you to upgrade freely with free ammo packs, by this time, you should have enough metal to go back to resupply and build an entrance in the hay to avoid immediate destruction, and an exit in the little cubbies hole next to the sewer exit. Presto!
Hey! There is one more thing to think. Range when dispenser gives us metal is a little shorther than our melee attack. So, if I have enough metal to complete disp upgrade, I do not use dispenser metal supply. It can save game when buildings starts constantly takeing damage until we are not full of metal.
A. I didnt know that upgrading other things like dispensers and teles should be prioritized over getting your sentry to lvl 3 asap. B. I love all the animations your getting!
Would also like to point out that it's usually better to upgrade tele last if nobody is a "kind soul" and you're on defense setup since 1: you should aim for survivability with dispensers and sentry coverage and 2: if they do die, nobody is coming soon due to longer respawns, enough to get a lv 1 to 2 if you're busy.
Great vid, you've shed light on the considerations we engis must take. I'm surprised at how many people are apparently unaware of the coordination needed to set up fast. Though I have to say, I place the disp first, and I prefer to get my tele to lv 3 before the disp- simply because this way, the lv 1 disp has a full metal reserve when you come to upgrade it, meaning less time wasted grabbing more packs. Plus with that much nearby metal you don't need a lv 3 to start. Points I'd like to hear your further opinion on: The widowmaker and short circuit (since they use metal) the situational usefulness of lv1 and lv 2 sentries, especially with regards to quick redeployments lv 1 and 2 teleporters as a way of spreading a pub team around certain maps rather than bunching them all up in your nest TLDR: gg more pls
I was once playing engi, and three people switched to engi to upgrade my teleporter at the beginning of the round. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
