Well my friends, the Engineer update is upon us. The Engi has a whole slew of new toys. But what purposes do these new weapons serve? And will they be useful in the competitive scene? This article is here to help.
Note: Keep in mind that these weapons have only just been released, and future nerfs/buffs may be incoming, as well as additional information not available at the time of this writing.
Frontier Justice
The Frontier Justice is the Engineer's new shotgun. It only loads three shells at once and doesn't roll for random critical hits. However, whenever his sentry is destroyed, it gets a certain number of guaranteed crits depending on how many kills his sentry racked up before destruction.
Sounds overpowered, right? Guaranteed crits, without a charge-up time (Kritzkrieg) or a minicrit vulnerability (Crit-a-Cola)? Blasphemous!
The success of this weapon depends on your Engineer playstyle. If you turtle, it probably won't be of much use to you, since crits are not carried over between lives (think "heads" from the Eyelander). This is of course assuming you die along with your sentry, since you're within a well-fortified base that just got destroyed by an uber demoman or pyro. If you throw down sneaky sentries (see the Gunslinger later in this article!) and get an assist or two, or a few kills, then this weapon will work wonders.
Okay, so that covers tactics in pub play. But what about the competitive scene?
Engineers are used on Gravel Pit and occasionally to defend the fifth point on CP maps. The purpose of the Sentries they build is not specifically to kill mans but to block access to an area. While sentry kills certainly happen, generally the Engineer involved is dead before or as his sentry is destroyed. The "no random crits" certainly doesn't apply in competitive play... but the smaller clip size means that any self-defense the Engi may attempt is now twice as hard.
This weapon in its present condition is underpowered for competitive play.
