Volus Engineer: 200 Waves Edition

Hello everyone, welcome to another edition of my 200 Waves guides. This is a guide for our favorite short and spherical suit-wearing character, the Volus Engineer. Here's the build:
Volus Engineer
Recon Mine: 4-radius, 5-recharge speed, 6-invasive scan
Proximity Mine: 4-radius, 5-damage taken, 6-recharge speed
Shield Boost: 4-radius, 5-recharge speed, 6-protection
Volus Training: 4-damage & capacity, 5-power damage, 6-weapon damage
Fitness: N/A

I recommend a lightweight weapon that does decent to good damage. I think that the Collector SMG is the ideal weapon since it is light, accurate, and does not need to be reloaded. Since I know not everyone has it, you can substitute it with the Hurricane, Hornet, Tempest, or Locust. Most pistols also work if you prefer to use one of those. The goal is a 170%+ recharge speed, but 200% is optimal of course, especially if you're not using a Power Efficiency Module.

For your ammo mod, I recommend using Incendiary Ammo to prime Fire Explosions. This will greatly increase your damage output.

Let's go over the Volus Engineer's signature power: Recon Mine. This is your passive, primary weapon. You want to set it in a high-traffic area to debuff as many enemies as possible. If you take invasive scan, as I do in this build, the radius evolution is a non-negotiable. I find that the debuffing function is much more useful on higher difficulties than using Recon Mine as a remote detonator. Since I don't detonate it very often, only to move it to another location, I skip damage for recharge speed. When I recast Recon Mine, I want to be able to get back to casting my other powers as soon as possible. So recharge speed is actually very important in this case.

Along with your gun, Proximity Mine is your active secondary weapon. Get in a rhythm of shooting your target with Incendiary rounds and then triggering Fire Explosions with your Proxy Mine. You want the radius and damage taken evolutions to debuff as many enemies as possible. Then you want recharge speed so you can get back to casting your other powers. When your target is in range of Recon Mine, you're getting a 25% damage bonus and then another 20% damage bonus from Proxy Mine. Your Fire Explosions will do a surprising amount of damage with all the debuffing. This isn't a shield-spamming support Volus that we're building. Don't be surprised if you top the scoreboards with this guy.

Shield Boost is your lifeline and you always want to have a fast cooldown so you can use this when you need it. I take radius to help out nearby teammates. Then I take recharge speed so I can spam Shield Boost if needed. Finally, I take protection because the 50% damage reduction is very useful on higher difficulties, and also helps out my teammates. Shield Boost gives your Volus 1.5 seconds of damage immunity, so use it before you get hit by a Banshee Warp ball. Use it before you get hit by an Atlas missile. Use it before you get hit by any major damage and you'll greatly increase your survivability. You never want to be caught with your shields down as a Volus.

Use Shield Boost in conjunction with your tactical cloak, which is activated by your light melee button, in case you didn't know. Your tactical cloak has a separate cooldown from your other powers, so manage this wisely. You can shoot and cast powers while in tactical cloak without breaking it, so use this to your advantage. When confronted with a group of enemies, use cloak and shoot them with your gun and Proxy Mine. When cloak breaks, use Shield Boost for brief invulnerability and take cover until your cloak recharges. If you are against a single target, you can simply use Shield Boost and attack them while you are invulnerable.

For Volus Training, I take all power damage to maximize damage from Proxy Mine, as well as for the extra carrying capacity. For evolution 6, weapon damage is always preferable. But say you have a Hurricane I and you really don't want to replace one of your attachments for Ultralight Materials, you might consider taking weapon weight (along with a weightless Acolyte). Finally, I skip Fitness because it makes so little difference that it's just not worth the points.

So there is your master level guide to the Volus Engineer. Now you can actually contribute to your team instead of spamming Shield Boost and locking up your teammates' controls! (No seriously, Shield Boost is glitchy and it does lock up your teammates'  weapons and powers sometimes. Heavy melee to unlock yourself if this happens). Have fun with the mighty Volus Engineer and thanks for reading!

-MACave11i
Grun7mas7er

Below is a guide to the Volus Engineer by Stardusk. You may skip the intro if you wish.