How Mass Effect’s Engineer Class Changes Over The ME Trilogy

The original entries in the Mass Effect franchise are a long and involved series of RPGs featuring plenty of combat. With Mass Effect Legendary Edition remastering the trilogy, many returning fans and newcomers alike will have to make the decision of what class their Commander Shepard will use. The class system in Mass Effect uses three primary categories for talents – biotics, combat, and technology. Three of the six classes combine two of the three, taking on a hybrid role. The other three specialize in only one, such as the Engineer, Mass Effect‘s tech expert.

The Engineer will interest any Mass Effect players interested in team synergy. The Engineer is a bit of a foil to the Adept class in Mass Effect, being unable to proficiently use any weapons except for pistols (at least in the first game), but having technological powers instead of biotics. Because of this, Engineers aren’t able to make up for their lack of weapons damage output with class abilities, and will instead need to shy away from direct conflict as much as possible.

In the first Mass Effect game Engineers are only able to equip light armor, but use their talents to negate enemy damage and buff squad mates. Reaching higher levels as an Engineer also means huge boosts to shields and being able to heal friendlies. The Engineer is more of a support role, and will not be very effective as the lead attacker until higher levels where the Mass Effect class’ talents start doing a lot of damage.

Engineer Talents in the Mass Effect Trilogy

Like many classes throughout the series, the Engineer gets a more expansive role after the very restrictive combat of the first Mass Effect. The most notable change was the addition of the Combat Drone to the Engineer’s arsenal in Mass Effect 2. This direction for the class goes even further in Mass Effect 3 with the Sentry Turret talent, which gets increasing shields, damage, and attack variety as it’s upgraded. While giving Mass Effect’s Engineer class more firepower overall, these talents fit nicely into the Engineer’s play style of taking a hands-off approach to combat. They are both activated before operating independently, leaving the player free to use other talents and focus on the fight.

The Engineer’s class abilities also get streamlined over time as more are introduced. For instance, Mass Effect 1 gives the Engineer the ability to hack synthetic enemies like the Geth with one talent, and prevent hostiles from firing their weapons with another. Mass Effect 3 eventually combines these into one talent which affects synthetic and organic targets differently. Overall, Engineers in Mass Effect are very good at controlling the battlefield and nullifying enemy shields and attacking capabilities, but may not be able to deal as much damage as some other classes.

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