Forgoing a Firefighting Tool

[Indreams]

A main engineer load-out is mallet - spanner - spray/extinguisher.
A buff engineer load-out is wrench - buff - spray/extinguisher.

But these load-outs are common place.

So, a load-out of mallet - spanner - buff. Is this viable? Is this recommendable? Can we hear opinions or anecdotes?

[sparklerfish]

People often do that for 3-engi builds when the other two have fire tools.  It can work but I personally feel naked and vulnerable without my chem...

[Replaceable]

As of late I've been using that, but I have B'elanna and Tyb to cover my chem, so I needn't worry..

[Alistair MacBain]

As already said thats common for triple engi builds.
imagine a Pyra ...
Main goes standard mallet spanner chem ...
Buff engi on balloon goes wrench buff chem
And the third engi on the  topright weapon goes mallet spanner buff.
You get both your guns buffed and a pretty quick rebuild for the balloon.
Its only really viable for experienced crews however as it forces people to coordinate even more and split tasks.

Idea behind this is that you barely benefit from a third chem but you highly benefit from a buff and a third engi that can rebuild his guns alone pretty quick.

[Replaceable]

It's quite good on a blenderfish too. The Heavy Carronader can take mallet/spanner/buff and heavy clip. The other engis can manage chem. And you can buff the gun and hull, and help rush quickly to the hull to rebuild if need be. #Survivability

Oh and on a Galleon with left side hades/lumber/flak i quite like it, counters guns being constantly destroyed pretty well. You're also in a good position to buff the turning engines and the main engine using the jumping trick thing. And if you're the flak gunner you can buff all the guns whilst waiting for a hull break.

It might be good as the heavy gunner on a spire too- again maybe with a flak gun but I haven't tried that yet..

Oh and I think Sammy (the duck junker guy ) has mallet spanner buff on the bottom of his Junker. Presumably so both can rush to the hull (to combat the low perma of a Junker) and to combat how vunerable the main engine and bottom guns are to burst Artemis.

I can't see it fitting in on a Mobula.

Maybe a squid?

_{Also, Indreams it's good to see you asking questions, starts up some interesting threads}

[Sammy B. T.]

I see the mallet spanner buff as the gunner version of an engineer. Oftentimes when I ask a newer player who was a gunner to switch to an engineer and give them that loadout, complain that they don't have a fire tool. I then point out they were already ready to play without one.

[GeoRmr]

I see the mallet spanner buff as the gunner version of an engineer. Oftentimes when I ask a newer player who was a gunner to switch to an engineer and give them that loadout, complain that they don't have a fire tool. I then point out they were already ready to play without one.

Lies - the heat-sink would have been sufficient and now they have nothing, stop handicapping your crew!

[Kamoba]

I have not long been in a round on a trip engi squid, I had a pipe wrench spanner and ext, one engi had spanner mallet chem, and the third had spanner mallet buff, we done quite well but had a moment of our captain telling both allies "Goto point C, okay good, no goto point D" "But you said to goto point C, so we're gunna stay at C..."
That "moment" lasted the whole match one squid who knew roughly what it was doing with two allies just being..... "special"... against three ships who knew what points to goto and when for a basic win...

[Sammy B. T.]

I see the mallet spanner buff as the gunner version of an engineer. Oftentimes when I ask a newer player who was a gunner to switch to an engineer and give them that loadout, complain that they don't have a fire tool. I then point out they were already ready to play without one.

Lies - the heat-sink would have been sufficient and now they have nothing, stop handicapping your crew!

Get your gunner zealotry out of this dicussion! Grown men are talking!

[GeoRmr]

I see the mallet spanner buff as the gunner version of an engineer. Oftentimes when I ask a newer player who was a gunner to switch to an engineer and give them that loadout, complain that they don't have a fire tool. I then point out they were already ready to play without one.

Lies - the heat-sink would have been sufficient and now they have nothing, stop handicapping your crew!

Get your gunner zealotry out of this dicussion! Grown men are talking!

Real men only fix things once the enemy is dead. #spireop

[obliviondoll]

I can imagine with the right build of a Squid, it might be possible to get away with a single engi for firefighting (Wrench/Extinguisher/Chemspray lol). Maybe - MAYBE - for a Goldfish too. Any other ship, and you want at least 2 Engineers to have firefighting tools.

Obviously, if there's a gunner on your ship, this means no engineers should be running without firefighting tools. On a ship with 3 (or 4) Engineers, having one (maybe 2) crew members with no firefighting ability is a little more viable. Even then, the flexibility of having both repair and fighting tools is hard to pass up when you have an Engineer. Even 3 crew members can't be everywhere at once, and if you happen to be the guy next to a burning part of the ship, you might end up wishing you were one of the firefighters...

[ShadedExalt]

As obliviondoll mentioned, being the guy next to the burning bit without any fire tools is never fun, and it happens enough as it is.  Noob here, but I'd give everyone a fire tool.

[Omniraptor]

I see the mallet spanner buff as the gunner version of an engineer. Oftentimes when I ask a newer player who was a gunner to switch to an engineer and give them that loadout, complain that they don't have a fire tool. I then point out they were already ready to play without one.

Lies - the heat-sink would have been sufficient and now they have nothing, stop handicapping your crew!

Get your gunner zealotry out of this dicussion! Grown men are talking!

Real men only fix things once the enemy is dead. #spireop

How to kill real men:

step 1: hit balloon with incendiary long range gun, like merc
step 2: hide, wait for balloon to burn down
step 3: ? ? ?
step 4: PROFIT

[ShadedExalt]

How to kill real men:

step 1: hit balloon with incendiary long range gun, like merc
step 2: hide, wait for balloon to burn down
step 3: laugh maniacally
step 4: PROFIT

Fixd, lawl, and salute!

[Alistair MacBain]

How to kill real men:

step 1: hit the balloon with a explosive longrange weapon (hflak) and let it catch fire
step 2: hide, wait for balloon to burn down
step 3: laugh maniacally
step 4: PROFIT

Fixd, lawl, and salute!

Fixed the start for ya ...
Thats the way to laugh .