First Insanity trilogy playthrough advice

Oh so I could use a sniper rifle as an Engineer and not be too gimped? Forgot how that worked. The heavier you weapons are, the more it slows down your power recharge for certain classes? If I did Engineer, which weapons are great and complement your other skills best?

Watching some Vanguard videos - it's so in your face. Not sure I could live much if I kept Biotic Charging everywhere.

P.S. if I'm running as an Engineer, which squadmates would be best for me?

You don't really need weapons on an Engineer. Spamming power combos will do the trick. Sabotage > Overload for most enemies. For larger enemies, like Brutes or Atlas mechs, Sabotage > Incinerate > Overload. With the Citadell DLC, Pistols and SMGs can get a mod that increases power damage which helps the Engineer a little bit more. Even still, I like running a sniper rifle or a shotgun.

Engineer works best -- in my opinion -- with EDI and Tali. Kaidan is also good (Overload and Cryo Blast), and even James is decent with his (limited) grenades and Incendiary Ammo.

Liara and Javik are good at crowd control, but you cannot combo off their Singularity/Pull so they are less useful to the Engineer. You could take a biotic bonus power, but then you just end up spamming your biotic bonus power when paired with Liara and Javik, making all your other skill investments a waste.

Ashley is also good with her Concussive Shot (combo detonating), Disruptor Ammo (combo priming), and limited Inferno Grenades (combo priming).

If you are wondering how I like to play the Engineer (with Tali and EDI), here are some videos to give you an idea. Both use Sabotage + Incinerate + Overload.

Engineer versus the Three Geth Primes on Rannoch:



Engineer versus Reapers on a shipwreck (Leviathan DLC):


Basically these videos just show how freaking powerful the Engineer's tech combos are.

Yes, you can use any weapon.  With the SR,  the infiltrator has a time dilation in the Operational Mastery skill tree that the others don't have, but I've never had a problem using a SR with any of them.  What weapons complement your class is basically whatever your preferences are.  For me, I really like using a scope and scopes are built in features of the SRs.  Using the Indra is like using a very accurate assault rifle with a scope.  For pure sniping, the black widow is probably the most powerful (but it is extremely heavy); the Krysae is a great SR and, right now, I'm really liking the Valiant (which is a collectors edition SR).

With the Vanguard, the barrier boost you get from charging everywhere really does help to keep you alive.  Nova, if you use it, is powerful enough to wipe out everyone around you; but using it with charge gets to be a real repetitive pattern that sort of takes a lot of the fun away from it for me.  I like using the charge more as a tactic similar to the cloak... a means to get me into position to flank the enemies.  It can be a lot of fun; but I do mess up and die somewhat frequently.

With the engineer, I really like using EDI and Kaidan early on.  After I get Tali  she usually comes on every mission teamed with either EDI or Kaidan (and usually my engineers are the ones who romanced her in ME2 and continue to romance her in ME3).  Red is right that incinerate and overload are the best places to invest points (lots of combos available with Shepard's quicker recharge times) If you do fully level up the sentry turret, it's really only the flamethrower evolution that's worth anything and it means that, at level 60, something else is not going to get fully leveled (but it is fun to watch).  Hacking the Cerberus turrets using sabotage is generally more effective than throwing out your own.

I like the drones OK and I personally don't have much of a problem with getting them into places where they do distract the enemies.  The thing with sabotage (backfire) - incinerate - overload is that it's a really power chain tech burst and that just annihilates enemies.  It makes using the drones seem sort of pointless; but like my not using the nova part of the vanguard, you can opt to play the engineer using the drones if you find that more fun.  As I said before, the turret doesn't seem to really do much until you get the flamethrower evolution (rank 6).

Overload and incinerate - definitely
You won't need your A/P ammo right off the bat - first armored enemy, you're likely to face are a few brutes on Palaven.  It's not a bad choice, particularly if you're using EDI, Kaidan and Tali (who don't have any squad ammo option to lend you).  Since you'll be using James on Palaven, I'd level his incendiary ammo to the squad level right off the bat and use it.
Sorry, I fell asleep on you last night... if you're wanting to create some combos with Liara, you could perhaps have taken a biotic bonus power like reave (if you have it available); Carnage can also be detonated with Liara's warp to create fire explosions.  At any rate, you can change your bonus power later in the med bay if you're not liking the A/P ammo; so no worries.
I'd also throw some early points into Sabotage (if you're wanting to use it primarily as a primer for tech bursts, you'll probably want to take backfire evolution at rank 4.  You'll definitely want to take the tech vulnerability option at rank 6 regardless)
As I said, I like the drone, so I'd probably put some points there,  but I think you do start with a point there, even if you do the reset in ME2 that Red mentioned.  If you don't do the reset, I think you start with rank 3 in everything (if I'm remembering correctly - I've been doing non-imported files lately and it's amazing how quickly I forget)
and I'd get some health and shields going and/or some weight bonus to start quickening my cooldowns.

Ok guys I did the reset trick Red mentioned - had like 58 points to spend at the beginning. Got to rank 3 of a lot of powers. Is there a guide for Engineering evolutions or just really the ones you mentioned are key? So maybe get Overload and Incin to Rank 6 first? Seems like Turret (have 3 points in it) isnt that good as you said. Drone is better to distract (rank 3.)

So, my basic combo is Incin and Overload? Either first?

Either way.

Incinerate -> Overload makes a fire explosion, which has bonus damage to armor.

Overload -> Incinerate does a tech burst, which has bonus damage to shields.

Because of the way fire priming works in this game, you can get two combos out of three casts with these though.

Overload -> Incinerate (Tech Burst) -> Overload (Fire Explosion)

Need to apply 30 burn damage to a target to prime for a fire explosion, and so the impact damage of the Incinerate is essentially a separate effect from the dot that primes, which is why this works.

I see you said you started with 58 points, which means you started ME3 at level 29? (you would start with 60 with a level 30 import).

At Mars you should reach level 30 or 31. At 31 you can max 3 powers (63 points), plus your one point in a bonus power.

So as an Engineer, I like to start off with this (level 31 on Mars):
Sabotage: Backfire - explode - Tech Vulnerability
Overload: Damage - Neural Shock - Shield Damage
Incinerate: Damage - Burning Damage - Armor Damage

Some players prefer Overload with Chain Overload at rank 4 so it hits more than one enemy. Same with Incinerate, some players prefer Radius at rank 4.
You could probably take recharge speed at rank 5 of Incinerate and Sabotage without losing much.

I would put 1 point in either Combat Drone or Sentry Turret if you want some Cerberus Guardian distraction, but since you took AP Ammo, that will give you some cover penetration so you do not need a piercing mod.

My level up strategy for the Engineer is:
1. Put points in Sabotage, Overload, and Incinerate (as outlined above) + plus one point in Combat Drone.
2. Level up Tech Mastery next. I go Damage - Weight Capacity - Tech Damage.
3. Max bonus power.

And then after that, if I care about using my drone or turret, I would put points into those. I rarely do.

For the Engineer, I would combo most enemies with Sabotage > Overload (tech burst). For Brutes I would go Sabotage > Incinerate (tech burst) > Overload (fire explosion).

For tech power combos with the Engineer, you want your weight capacity between +150% and +200%. If you have Fortification/Barrier/Defense Matrix active as a bonus power, then you want weight capacity at +200%. This is because most tech powers have a priming window between 2.5 - 3 seconds, so you need to hit your detonating power fast.

The Tech Vulnerability evolution increases all tech power damage by +100% for 8 seconds or so; this includes Tech Burst damage for some reason. This is why I use Sabotage as my priming power (enemies are primed when the backfire hits, about 1.5 seconds after you first cast Sabotage) > then detonate with Overload. Both Sabotage and Overload are instant-cast so enemies cannot dodge. 


If you want to use Combat Drone and Sentry Turret, I find Combat Drone is better at ranks 1-3, but Sentry Turret gets better at ranks 4-6. My preferred evolutions:
Sentry Turret: Shock - Cryo Ammo - Flamethrower (flamethrower can prime for a fire explosion)
Combat Drone 1: explosive drone - shock - chain
Combat Drone 2: shields and damage - shields and damage - rocket drone

Note about the rocket drone: the drone will move away from enemies since it needs to be at a certain distance before it fires; the drone intelligence is not very smart, so it does have a tendency to move behind cover and shoot at walls or chest-high barriers. So be aware.

LOL I can't get past the mars mission near the end. Keep dying. Ugh. I have Liara, Kaiden and myself. What am I doing wrong? I use overload for the centurions but I can't get the shields off the guardians. The drone sometimes works.

Ugh - did I pick the wrong class and need to go Vanguard????

Use Liara's singularity on the guardians.  It will lift them and they drop their shields.  Alternatively, use your SR (provided you changed your loadout earlier or at the weapons bench) and aim through the mail slot (I don't think you have a piercing mod for the SR yet, but once you do, then you'll be able to shoot through the shields.)  The drone will also sometimes get them to expose their backs to you.

You are really evil, aren't you? ... really? cheesing the door, where's the fun in that?