Battlefield 4’s Engineer class is king of vehicle mountain. Is a tank ruining everyone’s day? Get an Engineer to take care of it! Are your enemies destroying your vehicles before they can push an objective? Get an Engineer on board! A good Engineer can turn the tide of a battle and often, there aren’t enough of them in the situations where they’re needed most. If you want a class that people will appreciate you for, Engineer is a very good option.
The Guns
Let’s start with the bad news: Engineer guns are a mixed bag. They’re close-quarters PDWs with short clips. If you want to kill one guy really fast in a tight hallway, you’ll probably win every time. If see a squad up on a hill in the distance you should just turn around. Thankfully, BF4 offers players who prefer a decent mid-range gun some choices though the cross-class Carbines and DMRs. For Engineer I run with a Carbine (which you unlock by scoring points with the Engineer class anyway). The first one you unlock , the AK 5C, has served me well, certainly better than any of the Engineer PDWs I’ve unlocked. The AK 5C has the best stability and hip fire stats out of all the Carbines, making it a solid option for a run-and-gunning Engineer.
The Gadgets
More than any other class, an Engineer is spread thin. If they aren’t taking out tanks, they’re responsible for fixing them. If a helicopter needs to go down, an Engineer can do it, but usually at the expense of other things. Engineers have their work cut out for them, and selecting the right gadget can be tricky. My recommendation is to stick with the basics. Pick a solid anti-vehicle, free-firing launcher like the RPG-7V2, and a Repair Tool to fix up vehicles. This is the most flexible loadout for helping your team and hurting the enemy in equal measure, but be ready to switch to a homing launcher if a helicopter is causing problems.
Even in 64 player matches, where you’d hope there are enough players fulfilling enough roles that you can do whatever suits you best, it is better to be ready to swap loadouts at a moment’s notice. Assessing the flow of the battle is important for an Engineer because vehicle superiority can be such a game changer.
That’s why I’d personally avoid stuff like the M15 AT Mine, M2 SLAM, and EOD Bot. They can have their uses (though the EOD Bot is extra gimmicky), but they’re more contextual than other weapons and you don’t want to waste any time being inefficient as an Engineer.
The Field Upgrade
Like my previous class guides, I once again recommend that Engineers focus on their specialized field upgrades: Anti-tank or Mechanic. Anti-tank provides a nice bonus at level 2, with more starting rockets. One loadout to consider is Anti-tank with an anti-air rocket launcher and some mines. That will allow you to work on enemy air vehicles and lay down enough mines that you could take out a tank or two.
Mechanic is a great bonus if you're healing your own vehicles, or you’re a crazy person that likes to attack enemy tanks with a repair tool. I happen to enjoy this myself, so I wouldn’t hold it against you. That said, Anti-tank seems to be the better all-around field upgrade.
Recommended Strategies and Teamwork
A good Engineer will focus on vehicles and the battles taking place around objectives. You could go on a mission to take out an enemy boat somewhere out in the middle of Paracel Storm, but the better move is to work on the vehicles that are actually accomplishing things. Is a tank parked and stealing one of your Conquest flags uncontested? That’s something you’ll want to take care of. Again, an Engineer will benefit from teammates letting them know if a vehicle is causing problems, but often it’s up to them to assess the scenario and decide what their next target is.
In general, an Engineer with a repair tool is best-suited for vehicles, so they should keep a keen eye on their team’s vehicle landscape as well. Are there too many vehicles collecting dust at your base? Go spawn in one and bring it up to the frontlines!
Spawning in a helicopter with a repair tool is another great way to be a menace and rack up some points. Usually there's a passenger seat you can constantly repair the helicopter from. In general, you'll want to be a passenger, ready to hop out at a moment’s notice and take care of repairs.
The bottom line? Be the master of vehicles, decide which ones live and die, and make sure you don’t lose sight of your team’s objective. Good luck out there!
Other BF4 Guides:
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