This is your 3rd game you have ever played in Guns of Icarus and your repairing a engine on a galleon as an engineer and you see that someone else walks up beside you and starts hitting it with a tool too. You hold down "x" and tell him that you have the engine under control but he ignores you. You start to get irritated but then realize that he holding a tool that you have never used. You've only been using the default class and haven't had the time to look at any of the other tools that the game might have to offer. After the game you log out and click the "Role" button on the upper right of your screen. You scroll down to the tool layout out and see what other tools there are. Sure enough you see a hammer shaped white silhouette of the tool that the person was using.
You hover your mouse over the tool and your eyes catch the word "Buffing". Whats this? I'm going to try it out.
Buffing for the new player:
First thing I want to mention is that the Buff Tool doesn't actually repair anything. I have seen a lot of engineers not understanding why the hull's health wouldn't go back up and only a yellow line formed on the edge of the hull icon (They rage quit). The Buff Tool doesn't repair anything. The Buff Tool can be used on any part of the ship. Guns, Hull, Balloon, and Engines. When Buffed, each part becomes more, well I guess you could say "Buff" in different ways.
The Affects of Buffing:
Guns: When a gun is buffed, it becomes for power full and it's damage output is greater.
Hull: When the hull is buffed, it the hull's maximum health is increased.
Balloon: When the balloon is buffed, the balloon can move faster vertically (Up and Down.
Engines: When an engine is buffed, the engine will have more power and speed(Ship moved faster).
Important note on Engines:If you Buff a Engine on the right of your ship, because that engine has more power than the Engine on the left side of your ship, the ship will start to turn to the left and be off balance. The same situation would happen again if you only buffed the left side Engine except this time the ship would turn to the right. If you are going to only Buff one engine, make sure that the Engine you are buffing is the main Engine. Because the main Engine is mostly in between the left and right Engine, your ship won't go spinning out of control.
How to Start Using the Buff Tool:
To use the Buffing tool Effectively, you must first walk up to a part on your ship so you are in hitting distance of the part. Buffing has a similar mechanic as rebuilding because one hit from the Buff tool isn't enough to Buff that part of your ship, you have to keep clicking until the ship part is actually Buffed. Once you start clicking on the ship part, you will see that a
yellow line will start to get longer and longer on the left hand side of you ship part icon. Once that yellow line has reached the top of the ship part icon, you will see that the line moves over to the right hand side of the ship part icon and the line on the right hand side becomes shorter and shorter. That part you have been hitting with the Buff tool is now Buffed until the
yellow line depletes in length fully.
Important note when Buffing:Some parts of the ship take longer to Buff than others. Also, some parts of the ship stay Buffed for a smaller amount of time than others. Also, you can still Buff a part even if it is in a cool down state.
Shortest time to Buff to the Longest time to Buff:
Engines, Guns, Balloon, Hull.
How to be an Effective Engineer with the Buffing tool:
The first thing that you want to make sure about before you go in game is that you have a Pipe Wrench as your secondary tool.
This way you can repair part faster than a Spanner and you can rebuild parts faster than a Mallet.
Like I mentioned before, once you Buff something it is only Buffed for the time that the
yellow line is visible, so if you start Buffing and Buff a Gun, Balloon, or Hull, before even entering battle, it is a waste of a good Buff. The Engines however are okay to Buff if your captain wants you to because then you are able to approach your destination faster. The best way to use your Buff tool if you are not in battle would be to start Buffing but don't actually Buff the part you are Buffing. Instead, hit the part enough times so that in one hit, the part will be buffed. Do this for all the parts of the ship if you have time so that when you do enter battle all you have to do is tap each ship part one time and walla! You are ready and Buffed!
Thanks for reading my Buffing guide. If you have any other good idea's on Buffing please let me know.
Best of luck in the air!
-CrazyRihron
