Work in Progress [insert Disclaimer here]. You have been warned!

Class Mechanics - L2Engy

Volatility is generated from select skills (Builders) and expended by others (Finishers). You start combat with 0 Volatility which resets to 0 when you leave combat. As an Engy Tank, much of your time will be spent alternating between the two types of skills. Those of you who have played Warriors in WoW or GW2 will find this system very familiar.

Provocation Stance: Engys get 2 Stances. This one grants +150% Threat. The other one doesn't. Tank in this Stance.

Provocation ExoSuit: Engys get an "Ultimate" with a long cooldown (CD) while in Provocation Stance. It grants a long (20s) buff that continuously generates Volatility, grants a ludicrous amount of Mitigation and slows them to a crawl.

Characteristics - Things to consider when deciding to play an Engy Tank:

Aggro Controls - You have skills with effects that can quickly grab Aggro from mobs, such as Taunt ("Hard" Aggro transfer), Intimidate (Full Threat Transfer) and "Tricks of the Trade" (Partial Threat Transfer).

Heavy Armor + Boosted Deflect - Heavy Armor gives Engys a higher Armor stat than other classes, which allows them to ignore a greater percentage of incoming damage. This damage-ignoring effect is what Nerds call "Mitigation". The Engy also easily has the worst stat scaling for Deflect of all the tanks (0.25, gah!)...until you realize that + + can boost that value by 120 percent. That's not a typo, folks.

No baseline Shield Restore or Self-Heals - The Engy has the Heavy Armor of the Warrior Tank, but not the Mitigation Boost and Shield Restore. The Engy has the Deflect of the Stalker Tank, but not the Lifesteal.

Squishy - The Engy has the lowest Health returns to Grit of all Tanks. Yes, that includes the Stalker.

Pet - Your bots are dumb and will stand in the fire and die, often at the worst possible time. But they are cute and you want to have them because they are too useful to ignore.

Range - You won't have problems with Threat generation downtime. Your rotations will be as smooth as butter.

No speed controls - you have no practical way to get anywhere in a hurry or to get people to slow down for you. Plan accordingly.

Optimal Role - Why you get invited to Raids:

Offtank, due to the lack of Threat Boosts on skills + Aggro Controls. Your skills have no bonus Threat generation on them. That means that your normal rotations will never pull Aggro off other Tanks, even while in Provocation Stance. You also have skills to transfer Aggro to you on command. Combine the two and you have an ideal offtank class.

Basic Rotation - The easy part:

1: Open with .

2: Spam once or twice to generate sufficient Volatility.

3: Use whenever you have enough Volatility.

4: If your Volatility stays above 50, you're doing it RONG.

Tactical Tips - The hard part:

1: Above all else, make sure you don't let the Blunder debuff or Flak Cannon cast speed buff fall off.

2: Use to transfer Aggro as Offtank or to keep holding Aggro as Main Tank.

3: Use to keep your Threat up, since Deflect > > moar DPS > moar Threat. It's especially potent Threat generation when used right after while its Threat Boost buff is active.

4: Given 's unfortunate lack of anything resembling a self-preservation instinct, it's recommended that you use Shield Boost as soon as it comes off cooldown.

5: Blitz -----> dies -> to get some breathing room if your Health starts dropping too low. 's sacrifice will be remembered forever. Well...at least for the 20 seconds you'll have to wait before you can get a new one.

6: Use your Innate (Mech Suit) if the above isn't enough or if picked the wrong time to be standing in fire.

7: when everything has gone to hell and you need Aggro on everyone RIGHT NOW. For you WoW vets, this is mechanically similar to Tricks of the Trade + AoE Taunt. On a 45s cooldown. No, it's not overpowered, why do you ask?

8: Note that between 's and 's attacks + ticks + ticks = a lot of attacks. Procs are your friend!

9: can be swapped out for if desired. The 3s cast of Bio Shell makes it awkward to use outside of an opener.

AMPs - The other kind of tweaking:

Engy AMPs are a mess (Why is all the way back in Tier 3 of the Utility Tree? And what's with all these Resist AMPs being in the Utility Tree?). Move along folks, nothing to see here. I'll come back to this if or when they get this sorted proper-like.

Key AMPs:

Get ASAP, so you aren't left with a gaping hole where your 8th skill is supposed to be. Along the way, you'll want to pick up the following:

Reroute Power - Procs are my friend, remember?

Empowered Shields - Fewer times my bots die = fewer times I have to waste a GCD to summon their metal arses.

After you've gotten , it's time to move on to the Support Tree. Get these AMPs along the way:

Emnity - Wonderful for a Tank. Since you put out so many attacks, keeping up the Soft Taunt isn't a problem.

Incoming Healing - Seems like a really situational choice until you notice all the AMPs in the higher Tiers that heal the Engy.

Conservation of Energy - Gives the Engy something that they don't normally have (self heals) at the expense of something that happens all the time (Bot suicide). Win-Win.

Rejuvenating Rain - Just like Enmity, a solid effect for any Tank. It's also another self heal buffed by Incoming Healing.

Boosted Armor - Your Bots will die often. You will Deflect often. And with this AMP, you'll also have an Armor buff active often.

Empowered Weaponry - 10% Support Power from all gear. TEN. PERCENT. FROM. ALL. GEAR.