Gear

First things first, UPGRADES!

Start: Sentry

I always upgrade my sentry first, as I don't need to be on field with it as much as it needs to be on field. Often, I can leave my sentry alone for a few minutes while I go either upgrade myself, move buildings, or sometimes chase bomb (it happens, usually when you're moving your sentry and a bot gets past).

This obviously depends on your mission and starting money amount, but you want to try to upgrade your sentry's building health, your ammo capacity, and dispenser range first.

This is just a random mission i clicked on (custom map), and this is what my credits let me get. You always want to max out your dispenser range, as your teammates need it more than you do.

As you get more money (or if you're in nightmare with a bunch of money), you keep maxxing out your building health, get only 1 tick of sentry firing speed, then move onto your metal.

You only really get 2 way if you're in nightmare, as you don't get breaks in between to properly upgrade. The Disposable Sentry isn't needed, you can get it if you have enough money and you don't need any other upgrades. My only exception is in Ghost Town, I always get it before the spies show up to put behind us. It kinda helps. Otherwise, unless you have a fuckton of money and have no other upgrades needed, ignore the disposable sentry.

You only get one tick of firing speed, as the lovely shounic has pointed out the other ticks doesn't do anything. This goes for heavy as well. Save your money.

For example, here's a custom nightmare map. As you see, maxed health, 2 way since it's nightmare, one tick of firing speed, max dispenser range, and some metal. I actually had more money, but I save that for other upgrades. As more money comes in, if im not getting constantly demolished on the field I typically opt for maxing the metal.

CANTEENS:

For Canteens, upgrade buildings are your best friend. I don't literally touch any other one unless I'm another class. The literal only time I've not gotten them was in a glitched map where we needed to clear the tanks asap, otherwise they'd get stuck. As soon as I used my 3 crits I immediately went back to the upgrades.

However, don't let me stop you. If you want to run crits, that's fine. just be mindful of your loadout. I would say if you don't want to run upgrade buildings, maybe try rescue ranger and jag. I haven't tried it myself, so I'm not sure how it'd turn out, but that's the beauty of this game.

WEAPONS:

So.. This really depends on what you're running. For MVM primaries, you will want to either use Rescue Ranger, or Widow Maker. You could run Frontier Justice, but that's only really good for mini sentry, which you will almost never run in MVM, so I say ignore it.

Most players will choose Rescue Ranger, which I don't play with much, but when I do this is how I typically upgrade my Rescue.

I typically try to focus on reload, clip, and firing speed. Most people using rescue (myself included) use it to move the buildings around, and to heal it. You want to be able to heal your machines fast if you're using this one. (also side note I just clicked on a random loadout, that's why I have mini sentry equipped. this is not indicative off what you should use loadout wise.)

Now, this may freak some people out, but I'm a Widowmaker main in MVM. You might be thinking, "why the fuck would i run widowmaker?" Well, Widowmaker is good for tank busting! That sentry firing speed is great, and I also use it to replenish my metal. This is how I upgrade my Widowmaker :

If there's a tank that round/second I'm at the upgrade station, I'll try to focus on the firing speed. Sometimes I'll even ignore the projectile penetration if I don't have enough money.

For beginners, I'd probably recommend you stay on RR, as you'll still be learning how to move around and such. However, that's entirely up to you. If you don't mind running all over the place to grab your stuff instead of just using RR, go ahead! That's the main downside to this.

For secondary, I always go wrangler. I'm usually playing expert/nightmare modes, so giant medics are common. If you have a giant medic, wrangle your sentry and don't let it target the medic's target heal. Focus on the Giant medic with your wrangled sentry. Though, in lower modes, you can go with another secondary of your choosing. Short circut isn't the best, but it is fun. You don't really ever use your pistol/secondary (minus wrangler) unless you actively choose to, so just be aware.

ENGINEER/YOURSELF:

How i go about it is when I have the money, I always go with maxing my fire and crit resistances first. As I get more money, I move onto to bullet and blast after my sentry is maxed. Of course, this always depends on the map for the exact order, sometimes you have to go ahead and get your resistances in order to keep upgrading your sentry. If I have to do this, I always make sure I have at least a tick or two of building health before doing so.

This is usually how I try to upgrade myself when I have the money:

This is typically what I use for nightmare modes, as they give you a bunch of money. The movement speed helps you scurry around to move between buildings and to help you move faster when you're carrying a building. Of course, this is something I normally get only on nightmare, as most expert/advanced missions don't give you the money you need to get what is required first and the the movement speed.

This is also map dependent, but if there's a good sentry spot (will be elaborating soon) that has a pile of boxes to jump on, and you're constantly being hindered by these boxes, you can also get the jump height. Of course, this isn't always needed, and I only really get the jump height if I'm in custom mvm. Normal default mvm you don't really have maps that need you to jump up, so I just usually ignore it.

BUILDING PLACEMENTS:

Teleporter:

This one depends on your map. Like for my example here, the doors are spread apart from another, so I just picked the closest door to the path and placed my entrance tele.

In maps like below where the entraces line up with each other, put your tele in the middle. So many people will put it on just one door, which is okay if there are 2 engineers (the other can put his on the other), but usually most do not play 2 engie. It's not a issue for faster classes, but for heavy and soldier it's a massive inconvenience. Your job as Engineer is to help with bomb and also ease said inconveniences. Don't be a dick.

For your tele exit, try to keep it toward the front half of the map. My general rule of thumb when I'm not in nightmare mode is to try to put it not super far from front, but not to the point where if the bomb gets past the tele it becomes useless. This usually puts it towards the middle or 3/4 of the way in the map. You also want to make sure its not directly visible to bomb path, as you don't want anyone who's teleported in to be immediately targeted. Like in the image below, you can see the bomb path isn't far, and it's in a safe corner.

When I'm placing my tele, if I'm not sure about the placement in correlation to the bomb path, I'll pretend I'm a robot and trace the path myself to see how it goes. Usually if I see the tele at any point, I move it.

With Nightmare Mode, I treat teleporters for the most part the same, I just try to keep it on the ground floor and closer to the front than I would for a regular multiwave mission, as it's handy for getting upgrades.

For example, here is where i try to keep it when I'm playing ghost town:

depending on the path, I sometimes have it on the other side with the smaller fence, but I usually have it on this side.

Sometimes though, on some maps there are no safe spots on the ground. It sucks, but it happens. For those instances, I'll try to put it up top that is close to the front but you can easily access it.

Dispenser:

For your dispenser, listen to me when I say this: Your dispenser is NOT FOR YOU. It is for your teammates.

You generally want to build your sentry near an ammo pack, so you can leave your dispenser for your teammmates. So many people seem to think of only the Engineer's perspective, which is need ammo for building = keep dispenser near, but that's bad thinking. You need to consider the perspective of the other classes. If you don't have much experience with those other classes, play them. It'll give you an idea of how to play better as Engie.

Try to build it on the ground, at the front, behind something. You want to have it near the edge, so you teammates don't have to stand behind the wall to recharge. You don't want to build it out in the open, so in case if your teammates are very low on health, they'll have a spot to hide and heal. Try to move it with your team. If you're pushed back, and your team begins to move back forward, literally pick up your dispenser and follow them, then try to place it on wall edges.

As you see above, the dispenser can be accessed from most sides. This position is typically the best, as it lets heavies have a constant replenishment of ammo while still being able to shoot at the front. This also applies for soldiers, demos, depending on how the map is set up even snipers too. Scouts and pyros can easily swing by for ammo as well before getting back onto the field.

Sentry:

So this is a building you will be moving a lot, and that's usually because of bomb. As Engineer, I usually try to stay with the bomb no matter what, unless a tank needs help and I think the rest of the team can cover bomb while I'm with tank. As soon as bomb begins to get pushed back again though, I'll leave tank for bomb unless it's nearly to hatch.

For actual placement, try to have it kinda like your dispenser: behind a wall, near the edge. You want to try to angle it where your sentry can still target plenty, but have it behind something so it doesn't immediately get targeted and destroyed. It can be kinda tough to figure how to set it up, but with practice it'll become easier to spot.

You can try to put it above the robots on a bridge like this (though this picture was actually at spawn on an overhang, i moved it shortly after bc i realised a spawn was behind me. however, on actual bridges this will be fine usually). I like bridges, as I can swap sides pretty quickly depending on the bomb and robots streaming through.

This is another good spot, as it's in the direct line of sight for bomb for a good range, the robots won't immediately attack it, and you can usually kill more robots than them kill your sentry.

Now, sometimes I will put it more in the open, like this. There is the wall right there, so if I need to pull back my sentry and hit it, I have the cover. I also try to set up in places where i know i can move around freely after the bomb spawns in, like for example in Ghost Town, I will try to build on top once the bomb gets past the first couple of fences so i can place my sentry alongside bomb path and not have to worry about getting shot/blown up.

more examples of sentry spots:

Honestly, with sentries it is a choose your own adventure, as you'll probably be the closest to it most of the time. I've just found it easier to try to keep it near the edge of something as it's harder to hit/I can pick up and move to repair quickly.

I feel like I need to add more to this but reading this I feel like i've hit most of the main points, so I think I'll end this here. If you have questions or anything reblog with them, or just ask me and I'll try to answer! A lot of my tips I've had to take awhile to learn, and even with them I still fail sometimes.

Just know that Engineer in mvm can be stressful, and if you're seriously getting upset over not playing him please take a break! He's not really hard to learn, it's just seriously overwhelming at first and can seem like it's way too much to handle.